


Star Wars: Uncharted Stars - The Rise of Skywalker Bonus Story

by RoninReverie



Series: Uncharted Stars & Bonus Stories [2]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, Star Wars: Rebels, Star Wars: Thrawn Series - Timothy Zahn (2017)
Genre: Chiss Ascendancy (Star Wars), Fanart, Final Fight Scenes, Planet Exegol, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Spoilers, The Force, Unknown Regions, post previous fanfiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-14
Updated: 2020-01-20
Packaged: 2021-02-27 16:28:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 29,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22140079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoninReverie/pseuds/RoninReverie
Summary: Thirty years have passed following the Yuuzhan Vong War and the Galactic Civil War. As Force sensitives and war veterans alike find themselves hearing ghosts from the past resurface with a threat of total annihilation, the galaxy bands together to take the fight to the dark world of Exogul, where together, they hope to bring this extended war to a long overdo end.
Relationships: Alexsandr Kallus/Garazeb "Zeb" Orrelios, Ezra Bridger & Original Female Character(s), Kanan Jarrus/Hera Syndulla
Series: Uncharted Stars & Bonus Stories [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1588648
Comments: 37
Kudos: 48





	1. A Haunting Message in the Unknown Regions

**Author's Note:**

> **WARNING!**  
>  Aside the obvious TROS spoilers to follow, I want to also warn you that this story could have potential confusion if you haven't read "Uncharted Stars" first.  
> While it is a _"where are the Rebels cast characters during TROS"_ plot, I take heavy influences from the older fic and I will be making references of it throughout this new short story. If you do plan on reading or finishing "Uncharted Stars" (because it's a tad long) this story will have heavy spoilers for the ending and characters in that particular story.  
> That said, if you still choose to read ahead, I hope you enjoy the story, references and all!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Posted on: 1/13/20

The sounds of vicious laughter cut through his ears, as Ezra felt his stomach drop. The voice, so familiar and eerie, sent cold chills shooting up his spine as he listened to the dark echoes whisper around him.

 _“No…”_ He breathed, the word coming out a frightened puff of white air before his very eyes as everything around him grew black and began to freeze. His skin grew cold, shivering as though nothing would ever be enough to warm him, and he looked around the empty nothing as the laughter mocked his every turn. Cracks and frost began to close in around him, the path that he walked now drown in darkness.

_“Mwahahahaha! Hahahahaha!”_

“No… No… you’re dead! This can’t be happening.” 

_“Ezra Bridger.”_ The malicious voice mocked, his echoes of dark cackling looping louder and closer in the background.

 _“Ezra!”_ This time another voice sounded, one far off in the distance. It was a woman’s voice, even more unmistakable than the one haunting him. It was Ahsoka.

 _“Ezra!”_ This time a man’s voice, old and weary. He remembered it well as the voice of Obi Wan Kenobi back on Tatooine.

They all began to say his name. Jedi Masters of old whom he’d never met, people from his past who had died or fallen in battle, and even those close to him who were alive and well. Their calls consumed him, pushing him until he nearly dropped off the side of the path he was on.

He froze there and took in a breath to calm his mind, washing all the pleas and cries away until stunned silence was all that remained.

He heard his own breath, in and out… in and out… In this, he managed to find his center, and continued walking forward in silence.

_"Oh, you won't slip away so easily this time, Ezra Bridger."_

A cold breath landed against his ear, growing louder as a dark pressure choked the space around his head. Ezra fell to the side with a sudden gasp for breath, choking as only the empty white puffs revealed his struggle for air that was nowhere near. He could no longer tell if his eyes were going black, the darkness already impenetrable as he lowered his face to the ground, heaving and feeling the cold seep through his skin.

His fingers tingled, the path causing ripples of light to expand from his touch and in that one moment, Ezra bounded upward, shooting out a pulse-wave with the Force, and letting out a yell as the pressure faded away. He lay there victorious in at last retrieving his breath, but the moment was short lived as it seems the dark presence had only left him to crawl back into the shadows and speak its true message.

_“At last the work of generations is complete.The great error is corrected. The day of victory is at hand. The day of revenge. The Day of the Sith.”_

“No…” Ezra muttered, the cruel message replaying on loops in his mind as the laughter came back like a chorus of vengeful thunder.

He rose to his feet only to feel the jerking weight of ice holding him to the ground by his ankles, his lightsabers nowhere to be found as he felt the chill creeping up his legs.

He fought to pry himself loose, the dark voices and whispers closing in around him, ready to consume him before suddenly a small warmth surrounded him. Ezra let out a kick, and the icy shackles burst apart into shards.

_“Ezra.”_

His was the voice who cut through all the others, the focal point of all his newfound pain given brief solace as the phantoms of Force ghosts and nightmares fought for his control. He felt the warmth take hold of him, pulling him towards the right stepping points along the broken path.

“Kanan?”

 _“Ezra,”_ an unknown woman said. _“Ezra!”_ another man screamed. _“Ezra!”_ this one came out more of a cry, the words garbled by a thick alien accent. The never-ending sounds piled together louder and louder until a bright light shone in the distance. 

_“Go to them.”_ Kanan spoke again, the light growing brighter as Ezra eased towards its beacon of warmth. _“They need you. Go to them.”_

"Them? Kanan, I don't understand? What's happened?"

_"You'll know... when the time is right..."_

With a small quiver of breath, he reached out his hand and touched the light, the entire world drowning into silence as the bright swallowed the dark and then burst in a spectacular blinding blaze, a voice echoing a single stern order as Ezra felt the heat envelope him, and then with a scream, was quickly consumed by it all.

_"Wake up!"_

* * *

_“KANAN!”_

The old Jedi sprung forward with a shout, one of his blades darting across the room and into his hand, ready to be ignited, as hot sweat and cold breath filled the dark, quiet bedroom where he’d awoken.

A rustling of cloth and a soft yellow light were soon to follow, the concerned glowing red eyes of his wife on him as her hand came up gently to cradle his face, his breathing shallow as his skin trembled within her touch.

“Ezra!” she gasped, her shock less terrified as it was merely surprised to be so suddenly woken up. _“Ch'eo beo,_ what’s wrong?”

His lip could only quiver, his entire body simultaneously freezing and coated in sweat. He could not stop shaking as the nightmare replayed in his mind.

“Th—the cold… it— it’s back...” he whispered, swallowing back the dry taste in his mouth as he did. 

“A premonition? You haven’t had that kind of a nightmare in years.” 

She frowned, wiping his forehead with the cool skin of her hand before gently stroking his graying hair at the sides to soothe him further. Ezra could not be calmed though, and he got up from the bed, already across the room as he began switching open the furniture compartments to reach for his clothes and boots.

“I have to see Ahsoka.”

“At this hour?”

She rose to follow, grabbing for a green robe as she hurried behind him, her silken pajamas swishing with every step. Ezra was already dressed and reaching for his cloak as Tharin followed worriedly behind him into the next room.

“I know...” he replied, shuffling to get ready with what shaken resolve the dark dream had gifted. “But this is too important. I have to see what this all means. I need to—” 

**_*WHOOSH!*_ **

The door panel slid open not long after only for the couple to be met with the equally concerned and confused eyes of their daughter, her face just as it looked when she was a child come in with a nightmare, only now it had visibly matured as she’d grown into an independent young woman. Her tears were traded in for concern and a slow processing panic, but that same nightmare-induced fear could still be read in her eyes, the whites wide as her red irises focused shakily on her two parents.

 _“Ticsi?”_

“I know...” He nodded, taking her by the shoulders before pulling her close and softly stroking the wispy strands of her hair down. “I know… I’ve felt it too. It's going to be okay.”

**_*WHOOSH!*_ **

“Master!”

This time it was Cade who wandered in, his surprise entrance bursting through the front door as more and more pajama-clad Chiss, young and old were already converging onto their yard. It would seem all of the ozly-esehembo and other Force sensitives of Schesa had apparently been awoken by the same sensation and message as he had.

_“Chi’rci!”_

_“Chi’rci_ Bridger!” They called, their mob reminding him of the cacophony of voices haunting him in the other world and making a sick pang shoot across his gut.

“I know!” He called hurriedly. _“Ch'ah rsah!_ I know. I saw it too. Go, gather the others and wait for me at the training hall! We’ll get to the bottom of this, but first I must speak with Ahsoka.”

The groups obeyed and dispersed, all except for Ezra, his family, and his old padawan.

“What’s happened, Ezra?” Tharin asked gravely, her voice more demanding of answers as she watched the mobs disperse. “I’ve never seen the collective this strongly affected before. What are you sensing?”

“Something old and dark…” He replied, looking back at her eyes with his brows low, crinkling the already wrinkled corners of his eyes deeper as he spoke the next words at her like a threat. “And it’s close.”

“ _Ticsi,_ what was that? Those images... that cold... I’ve never felt such dark energy before.”

“I haven’t felt a surge of evil like that since Abeloth's defeat.” Cade joined. “You don’t think it’s her, or maybe even Krayt come back already, do you?”

“No.” He shook his head. “No, I know that voice. Of all the ghosts it could have been, why did it have to be _his_ voice that’s come back to haunt me?”

“Ezra?”

“I’ll explain it all to you soon, _ch'eo vur_ , I promise.” He kissed her, and reluctantly let go of her hands as he continued out the door. “Eryth, Cade, go with the others and keep them calm until I’m able to finish my talk with Ahsoka.”

“Yes Master.”

“Sure, _Ticsi.”_

Eryth took her mother’s hand before letting it slip off her shoulder as she and Cade nodded to one another and headed off towards the school. 

“What can I do to help?” Tharin called.

Ezra turned, his eyes more focused as he back-stepped down the hill.

“That order we made for the Clawcrafts on Csaus... Just make sure they’re ready. We're going to need them sooner than we thought.”

“The whole fleet?”

He nodded.

“We may have been too late to stop them before, but now they’re working in our regions. We will not let them get away with this, not without a fight.”

She nodded, her eyes both firm and confused as she watched her husband bound off into the night.

The Yuuzhan Vong War was the last example of military strength the Chiss were forced to maintain, and that had been close to thirty years prior, but still, Tharin mused at how odd it was that even after so many years of peace, preparing for a larger fight could so easily slip back into one's life as though it had never left.

After the planet Ilum had vanished from their system, and it had become clear that neither the Grysks nor Vagaari people had been responsible for the disappearance, the Expansionary Defense Fleet and councils had begun to worry. Their many questions had been left unanswered for years until finally the Force sensitives of Schesa had all sensed the massive deaths and destruction caused by what they now knew as “Starkiller Base”, the reformed machine world formerly known as the Jedi world Ilum. Ever since the disturbance, the Chiss had begun preparations to defend themselves for another great battle; those former Imperials such as Eli, Thrawn, the Chimera survivors, and Ezra knowing full well the weight this new military would bring to their people having done more than steal an entire planet from the Unknown Regions.

Tharin reached for her communicator and dialed in the number for the labs on Csaus, her Cheunh sounding just as firm and orderly as that of the Aristocra as her message rang through the labs of her former planet.

“This is Mitth’ar’inrokini. There has been an update on Schesa. The Clawcrafts must be ready to fly sooner than expected. Spread word to the other manufacturing branches and divert all available hands to their production at once.”

_“Rcisah rob, Mitth’ar’inrokini. Nah k'isi cav tinur csom.”_

They would begin their work at once.

 _And i_ _n doing so..._ she thought wryly. No doubt also waking every person on Csaus, Sharh, and Ornfra with their new quotas. The military would be quick to learn of the disturbances next, followed by the politicians, and by morning all Chiss worlds along the Path of Houses and beyond would no doubt have heard of the threat sensed by the people of Schesa.

Tharin only hoped by then they would be able to organize a response, and that she would have enough time leftover to see her family again before all of them rushed right into an entirely new battle.

* * *

Ezra wandered through the halls of the quiet home. 

When she wasn’t on one of her “personal private missions”, Ahsoka lived in a cozy suite at the very top of the new Jedi school they’d built years ago for the ozyly-esehembo... or the second one, he should say. The first, smaller version of the school still rested on the planet, Csaus, where it had been used during the years the Chiss spent decomposing the summa-verminoth's corpse from the surface of Schesa. It was mostly used as a research facility nowadays, but since everyone had returned to Schesa, there wasn't as much need for an Alani training academy all the way over there.

At both schools, Ahsoka has always acted as one of their wisest and most influential teachers present, and when she was on-world, she always chose to remain close to the school should she ever be needed for something important, _such as she was tonight._ Though many came to Ezra or Maris long before working up the courage to bother Ahsoka with something potentially trivial.

Having enough sense to knock before entering her bedchambers, Ezra tapped against the doors gently, only to be immediately let in by the sudden swooshing of the metal doors.

“Ahsoka?” He asked, peeking his head in slowly only to see her floating meditatively in the middle of her chambers, the decorative octagonal sky-roof above silhouetting a perfect circle of moonlight and shadowed paths around her as she slowly drifted back down to the floor.

“Ezra,” she said, greeting him expectantly.

“You’ve felt it too.” He assumed, wandering closer to her as she held out her hand for him to help her rise to her feet.

“I have.”

Her knees popped slightly as she rose, the age within taking more of a toll on her joints than she appeared on the outside. Ahsoka was in her 70’s, which was old enough for an average Togruta, though she had told him before that some well-connected with the Force had been known to live much longer. By all accounts she did not look old, her skin barely wrinkled anymore than his own, and only the length of her lekku giving off her advanced years. However, for the last few years, especially surrounding the Starkiller Base attack, she had looked more tired, as if a great weight was forming on her shoulders and there was no way to lift it any higher than she already was.

Standing now, she stared patiently to her old friend and waited as he ran his hands through his hair and beard, finally settling for a light intake of air before choosing to speak again, his eyes rocking with old, dark memories from his younger years.

“How— How could he possibly still be alive? Is it a trick?”

“It was no trick,” she replied calmly. “It was indeed Palpatine, and his threat is very much real.”

“But Palpatine was killed! He’s been dead for thirty years! How could he possibly have come back now?”

“You and I both know well the mysteries of the Force, Ezra. You were the one to save me through the world between worlds, and we uncovered similar portals during the Yuuzhan Vong War, as well as those in my staff which connect to a plain beyond even our own existence. Even the Sith have their ways of returning from the dead or bending the rules of space and time. There are ways for these things to happen.”

“Yes, but why now? It’s clear that he is somewhere in the Unknown Regions with us, and the darkness that surrounds him is like nothing I’ve ever felt. It’s more raw untamed evil than I’ve ever imagined, more even than Abeloth. He’s planning something like nothing we’ve ever faced before, and I fear we may not be enough to stop it.”

“You’ve grown more cautious in your old age, Ezra,” Ahsoka teased. “But we are not alone in this fight… not as we were in the war with the Yuuzhan Vong.”

“You heard Leia’s distress call. It’s been too long and we’ve not heard a single reply, not even from the _Ghost_ or any of our other allies."

"You assume they heard it just because we did, but that may not be the case. Sabine has reported disappearances lately, many of whom would have answered the Resistance's call in a moment's notice. Either the people were not around to get the message, or it was being blocked from them somehow? Not all that surprising now that Palpatine has figured out a way to tamper with the comm-waves, is it?"

"He's on the comms?"

She made a face.

"Perhaps the block hasn't reached us yet, but I sense the disruption working its way through the galaxy. If your comms aren't jammed yet, they will be by morning." 

A vision then, Ezra realized. Ahsoka always had a rule about revealing the future as her visions were some of the clearest he'd ever seen. Nobody should know the future, and he had heard the warning said to him by many different faces throughout many separate years. Sometimes it was hard to keep track of what all was to come and what already was, and occasionally those visions managed to slip out before Ahsoka realized her spoiler. Ezra nodded and moved past the slip, cataloging what to expect and mentally reminding himself not to let it guide his next moves. That was exactly what would lead them to trouble, and that was something they definitely didn't need any extra.

He cleared his throat to speak.

"Now that Palpatine is showing his face so blatantly like this, I wonder if that resurrection is enough to truly revive the spark of rebellion in everyone who may be left to fight?”

“It surely seems to have done so with you?”

“It’s true,” he said with a small shrug. “We’ve been preparing for a new fight even in these times of peace. I wonder if that was the right thing to do, or if we somehow jinxed ourselves in training for the worse when there was no enemy yet to face. The Far Outsiders are nothing of what they once were and the military has been handling all incidents well, but now I can’t help but feel guilty that I’m glad we’re ready for what larger threat has come for us today.” 

“I feel the old Order had much the same reserves as you do now. War often causes us to question our motives. Have we been training all these years to keep the peace, or have we been preparing ourselves for another inevitable war?”

“Do you think it was the right thing?”

“What do you think?” she answered with a question of her own, something she was very good at doing.

“I think I’m happy the students are prepared for a fight… and I think we should definitely fight.”

A flashback of himself as a kid yelling at Master Yoda about Malachor and wanting to fight flashed in his mind again. It was one thing how that turned out and another that lead him here to Chiss space. No sacrifice was without its setbacks or rewards, and it was impossible to change the past when one future had already been saved. _There was no taking back sacrifice, once the timeline was set._ He knew the lesson and its drawbacks very well by now, and yet Ezra still sighed and rubbed his face again at the conflicting feelings welling up inside. No matter how many times, it was never an easy choice. He’d lost more than one friend thanks to these kinds of choices, but then again, he'd also managed to save a few as well. The decisions he was forced to make in these times of violence never got any easier, though he liked to think in his old age, he had grown to see the bigger pictures when it came to fighting in wars.

“You know—” He almost chuckled. “Karyn Faro once told me that there would always be a war to fight. She said that she didn’t believe we could make it a single lifetime without one happening somewhere. If only she could see the state of the galaxy now. I think she would be pretty smug knowing she was right.”

“If you live long enough, you get to see a lot of things repeating. The balance of those living in the universe is always just that, a repeating loop of emotions, histories, and goals. There is no one without the other. Thousands of years ago there was a group fighting with the dark, and a group working towards the light. Even when one side wins their war, and casualties mark both sides, there is still only the balance, still two sides and two goals, one never completely destroying the other, even though it may seem that way on the surface. The faces may change and the goals may evolve, but all in all, it is always two who choose to fight again and repeat the never ending cycle of life.”

“And what about those of us who work in the middle?”

She smiled.

“We are just enough to cause ripples in the balance. Perhaps not enough to win a war, but enough to make a difference for the side we think is right.”

He nodded.

“This is not a new war. It’s still the same one that’s been around me my entire life, the same one that’s been there for practically all of yours! Even if we can end the fighting, even just for a little while before a new fight comes along, I want this war to end. No more Clone Wars, no more Galactic Civil War, no more— _whatever_ they’re calling it now. Having Palpatine back from the dead only proves my point. It’s time to put an end to this chapter and finally try to begin another. For real this time, not just as a few years of waiting for it to come back like some sort of virus.” 

“I agree.”

“Great! The new fleet of Clawcrafts for the students and military families should be ready soon. We can focus on the location of Palpatine and get the coordinates, that I’m sure of. The only problem is I doubt we’ll be able to block his presence to us the same way we did with Krayt. The ysalamiri groves on Csaus may be a big help in blocking him, but will hinder our abilities to search for his location. If we can get our location and if we can time this correctly, we should be able to make it there when we’re needed most.”

“I know you will.” Ahsoka smiled, then just as calmly shook her head. “But I’m afraid I cannot go with you.”

“Wait, what?”

“I’m needed here. There is something very important that I need to do and it will require all of my concentration when that time comes, but I agree with your instincts, Ezra. Palpatine’s forces are uprooting ancient evils and enemies to the Force. It is up to those of us in the middle to tip the scales back towards the light, and you _can_ help them, Ezra. You can help the next generation tip the scales and end this battle between the light and the dark. I implore you not to get involved directly, but that doesn't mean you should stay on the sidelines of the battle to come”

"You don't want me to face Palpatine?" He frowned, his eyes studying her as her still face refused to offer him any clues to what she was thinking. "Wouldn't that be precisely where I'd need to be?"

"No. If you and Palpatine cross paths again then the balance will break. You are to keep your distance, as well as that of the Alani pilots. There are two who will see to the risen chancellor's defeat, and anymore will surely tip the scales in the wrong direction." 

"Balance..." he repeated, the words almost sour in his mouth as his thoughts raced. "I understand. I don't like it... I don't know what you've seen... but you've never steered me wrong. If you've seen potential futures where the students and I shouldn't face Palpatine, then I believe you."

"It is the only way for this battle to complete in our favor."

“Well, if Palpatine is finally defeated once and for all, then that will be enough for our lifetime... enough for me at least. Whether I'm involved or not.” 

At the same time he also understood the meaning of her words and how the Force worked in mysterious ways, ways that he still didn't fully understand, even in his old age. If Ahsoka said he couldn't cross paths, then he would have to stay away. Likewise, if she had something important she needed to do that did not involve springing into a heated battle, then Ezra knew that it was also the right choice to make.

It was the macabre way in which she'd said it though that made him worry, and he hoped it wouldn't be something so crazy that it wound up getting her lost or killed as it had with him and Kanan. Being two steps ahead or overly heroic had a way of making martyrs out of people, and that was one thing that never got any easier no matter how many times he'd seen it happen. Heck, it never got any easier no matter how many times he'd done it himself!

“I trust you, Ahsoka, but whatever it is you have to do up here, promise me it won't be anything too reckless.”

“Trust me, even if I must do something reckless, Ezra.” She tilted her chin, an amused glint in her eyes.

"I don't want to lose you. You're too important."

She waved his words away, her nose wrinkling.

"People come and go. It's how we choose to live beside them and remember them that's the most important. I'll be fine. You should worry about yourself half as much as you do for everyone else."

"But I—"

"You worry too much!" She almost laughed. “Now... you have much to explain to the students, so I suggest you begin with a very detailed explanation about who the man they heard inside their heads was and what exactly his presence has done to the galaxy all these years.”

"Alright. I guess it's a good place as any to start?"

With an understanding nod, Ezra offered a parting gesture to the old Togruta as he turned to leave her chambers with mixed thoughts. As usual, Ahsoka seemed so wise, so sure and confident with herself, but there was still a pit feeling sinking in his stomach that he couldn’t shake. To say he had a bad feeling about this was an understatement. He had so many questions, so many emotions welling up within him, and so many worries for everyone he cared about. His family, his students, his friends... what did this coming war mean for them, and how could he save them all if he still wasn't sure what they were up against?

“May the Force be with you!” she called, returning to her peaceful meditative pose as he was leaving.

As the doors slid shut, Ezra could only frown and nod his head back to her, his final words as calm and confident as he could mask it to be as he spoke with her now one master to another.

“Always.”

* * *

As the meeting with all of the Force sensitives on the small planet came to a close, the sun had already risen over the indigo skies of Schesa.

"Alright," Cade said, catching up to Ezra in the crowd as he made a path back towards his home. "So the few of us you picked to track down this Palpatine guy's location are going to Csaus in case we need the ysalamiri's protection, but what about the rest of the students? Do you really think they wont be targeted like before with Krayt?"

"Krayt was possessing people as a way to make me suffer and distracted. Even though Palpatine has tried to kill me before, I don't think I'm so high on his radar that he'd waste energy trying to do the same."

"Even though he took special interest before the nightmare message began?"

Ezra shot him a look. He'd become a fine Jedi Knight, a fine soldier, but he had never outgrown his endless curiosity and questions. Just as he opened his mouth to make a reply, his daughter caught him halfway out the door and held her comm-link up to his face.

 _"Ticsi!_ I was just in contact with Tin'mi and G'en'vti Thrawn, when our communications were suddenly interrupted... by... _well..._ by this..."

She turned it on with hesitation in her eyes as Palpatine's voice instantly chilled all within earshot.

_“At last the work of generations is complete.The great error is corrected. The day of victory is at hand. The day of Revenge. The Day of the Sith.”_

And there was Ahsoka's vision come true. Even unsurprised, Ezra could not hide the sickened look on his face as Palpatine's haunting voice touched his ears.

"It's on the comm-waves too?" Cade gasped.

"Not just that." Eryth shook her head. "It's on every channel, even the old unused frequency you use to summon the Purrgil. It's all the same message."

Ezra's lip tightened and he shut off her comm-link before the message could repeat another loop.

"Alright... this is alright..." he said calmly. "The military taught us how to send encrypted messages so complex that no one but the Chiss can interpret. There's no way to block those methods. The communications experts will know what to do with that and will spread the message across the rest of the Ascendancy." He scratched his hair and made a tired face, as though expecting a foul answer. "So, what did your mom and Thrawn say before you were cut off?"

"Well, _Tin'mi_ is prepping a flight back to Csaus to aid with the new production deadlines. _G'en'vti_ says the other military families are already preparing to send out search fleets and scouts. They are planning on creating a defensive barrier for the Ascendancy rather any sort of attack like you suggested, though the Aristocra are approving all efforts that you made earlier for the _ozyly-esehembo_ thanks to the influences of _Ch'azi, G'en'vti,_ Eli, Maris, Walten, and Urick— basically any in the Ascendancy with any background of this Palpatine guy and his threats."

"They're approving our production? Even Thrass?" Ezra frowned. "He was against it before, called it a "waste of resources" and "a threat to his only granddaughter and _cssoboti_ son-in-law"." 

"I guess an entire planet of early warning and blocked comm-waves are enough to convince even someone as stubborn as _Ch'azi?"_ She smirked. "Besides, he knows we can take care of ourselves."

"I suppose so." He waved for her to follow. "Come on! Let's get home before your mother leaves. Cade, we'll meet you on Csaus for the search group. Give my regards to your parents for me, and let your mother know—"

"You won't let me get killed?" He interrupted smugly before rolling his eyes. "I'm 35 years old, Ezra, trust me, I know the drill. I'll try not to lead with that while I pack because she's probably freaked out enough as it is that I ran out of my house in my pajamas along with everyone else on the block."

"Assuming that's not already in the norm for you?" Eryth teased.

Cade smirked and flicked her nose as Ezra let out a small smile and the they parted ways with hurried waves before rushing off.

"Speaking of which, _Ticsi,_ what _are_ we going to tell _Tin'mi_ when we get back and reveal our mission to attack this source directly has been approved by the Aristocra? She'll be worried."

"Your mother is the smartest person in the Ascendancy..." Ezra said with a deflated smirk. "Trust me, she already knows and is already worried. You know, I'm not too thrilled about you going on this mission either, Eryth."

They walked quickly, Ezra losing a bit of his speed as the thoughts of his daughter getting hurt or killed in the battle to come made his joints lock in place and his legs grow heavy like lead.

Eryth turned and gave him a look, not outright defiant, but one of mixed emotion and understanding as this had not been the first time her father had expressed these concerns for her safety and well being.

"You can't leave me out of the fight just because I'm your daughter. I'm fully capable and fully grown. The others in my squadron look to me for leadership in the field, you know that."

"No... I know! I do... Really! We came to grips with that years ago, honey, but—" He sighed. "It still doesn't make it any easier in times like this... not for either of us."

She slipped her arm under his and hugged him tight as they stopped a few feet from their home.

"I love you too, _Ticsi._ But, we have a job to do, so we can't be weighed down by worry. If all we do is fight for our own lives then our lives mean nothing. You taught me that." She smirked. "And in my eyes, you worrying about me is just as selfish as worrying about yourself because I'm your kid. You've got to let me go out there and fight for what I believe in. It's what you would do if you were in my place, high stakes or not."

"Easier said than done, kid."

He smiled and squeezed her before placing a kiss on the top of her head, his eyes matching his frown as he watched his front door open at the top of the hill and saw Tharin there, leaning in the doorway and returning that very same look.

Ezra took in a long breath, and then let it out and released Eryth from a hug he longed to keep her safely wrapped in forever.

"You're right though. Come on. There's a lot to get done before our mission, and there's something important I want to do before we leave world."

He cleared his throat and wandered up to the home before taking Tharin's hands and kissing her forehead, his lips mumbling something Eryth couldn't make out before both of her parents looked in her direction as she approached the door.

"Eryth, there's something we need to discuss with you," Tharin said, her eyes that mix of stern and somber she typically got before any of Eryth's missions.

She walked into the house, following their motion as they escorted her into the living room and she took a seat on the couch.

"What's this all about? If this is another "don't die" speech, then do we really have time for this right now you guys? I know the sentiment, and promise to do my best not to die, honest."

"Not this time. No, your father has something for you." Tharin explained. "It's just as important, but yes, I should hope the "don't die" part is to be assumed and implemented automatically."

Ezra nodded.

"And trust me, I was going to do this much later, but all things considered, I figured there'd be no better time than now."

She nodded suspiciously, but offered them her full attention as her father cleared his throat, reaching to his hip for his white-hilted lightsaber. He gripped it in his hand, his eyes swirling with memories and thought, as were her mother's as both seemed to match a history she hadn't been around for. Eryth could only watch, her brows low as though trying to decipher their unspoken messages, and all the while wondering what exactly they were about to say next.

"I had planned to pass this down to you when— well, when I didn't need it anymore. This saber was made here in the Unknown Regions, and was probably one of the last kyber crystals harvested before the First Order returned to steal the planet Ilum. I had always dreamed of taking you and Cade to a temple to find your own crystals and make sabers of your own, but— well, since that isn't really an option these days, this lightsaber could very well be as rare as the Jedi themselves."

"What are you saying?"

"When your mom and I found the crystal on Ilum we thought the Empire had salvaged nearly everything there and abandoned the world to die. It wasn't until recently that we learned how these new Imperials turned the planet into a source for their weapon. Had we known what they were planning, we might've—"

He trailed off, Tharin gently placing a hand on his shoulder as she nodded.

"No one could have predicted what would become of the planet. Not a Jedi with their premonitions, and not a scientist with all of our facts and knowledge. We can just be grateful that we got in and out when we did and managed to save even one of these shards from being abused any farther by enemy forces."

"We brought this crystal back to Csaus, but turning it into a lightsaber wasn't as easy as merely finding it in the ice."

"You call getting the crystal, easy?" Tharin muttered, rubbing her elbow and prompting a small smile from Ezra as they both enjoyed the inside joke.

He continued.

"The crystal fought me to be created, sending me visions of all the darkness it had to overcome and all the calamities I might potentially face, but I stayed focused and after many trials, I finally forged a connection with it. It was a shock when I first ignited it and saw that it was red. You should have seen our faces then!" He chuckled and then let out a long breath. "Over time, I managed to weaken that color into the orange it is today, a process of healing the crystal from the corruption caused by the very war you saw in your vision, the war that apparently hasn't ended like we all thought. I've never actually been able to turn the light to white like Ahsoka had with her sabers, no matter how many challenges we faced together. Part of me wonders if that's the true reason the color remained orange for so long? It's as if it knew the war wasn't done, and just couldn't be at peace until it was all over."

Tharin watched, both of their faces simultaneously proud and worried as he gave it one last squeeze and then held the weapon out to her.

"I believe you will be able to wield this saber in ways I never could, maybe even allowing the crystal to finally be cleansed white from corruption. Not only that, but the battle we're going into is most likely going to be more dangerous than any mission you've ever faced, and I want you to take this saber and use it to protect yourself when I'm not around. Do you understand?"

She slowly reached out and took it from his hand, but never broke eye contact as her brows furrowed.

"You sound like you don't plan on coming back?"

He and her mother exchanged a look.

"War is full of uncertainties, and a fight against the Sith is something not even I am totally prepared for. I just want to know that if anything happens you'll have this, and carry it with you should you ever need it."

"You are stubborn, daring, brilliant, and _cavvsah_ if I don't see both of our faces when I look at you, Eryth." Tharin added. "You're just like us, and _just like us,_ we know you'll get into trouble, perhaps more than you can even imagine. When that time comes, and it will come... then you will need something stronger than an electro-lance to get you out of whatever bind you're in. Trust us." 

Another secret smile was shared between the two, and it was as if Eryth could see the exact memories they were recalling to one another, but she wasn't allowed to process the visuals.

Her father winked at her.

"You've trained with it before, but now I want you to keep it with you, through whatever obstacles we may face, I want a little part of me still there watching over you, even when you're the one who'll most likely be watching my back."

She nodded sternly, rising as she turned to ignited the saber, letting its soft orange-tinted glow illuminate the room and everyone in it with warm light. Despite the morose look of seriousness on her face, a soft chuckle coughed out passed her lips as she watched the weapon with a thoughtful expression. She'd always admired her father's sabers, this one most of all. As a child she'd imagined going on missions with him while wielding this exact weapon and now he was giving it to her to do just that.

"It's heavier than I remember," she said through one excited and slightly cautious breath.

Ezra smiled.

"Energy constantly flows through the crystal. You're not fighting with a simple blade as much as you are directing a current of power. Your thoughts, your actions, they become energy. They flow through the crystal as well, and become a part of the blade."

"So the longer I use it, the easier it will be to wield? I understand. Thank you _Ticsi._ I promise that I'll make you proud."

"You already do." He grinned.

She shut off the saber the three slipped into a long hug, each standing there for the longest of moments as they absorbed every last speck of peace and love their family could transfer to one another before they had to leave for the unknown to follow.

 _"Ahem!"_ Tharin sighed after a another long moment, taking in a teary breath of air as she reached back and grabbed her daughter's shoulders. "Phew! Now, don't think _Ticsi_ is the only one with gifts for you, young lady. My latest upgrade to the canons on your Clawcraft is sure to pack quite a punch! You think of me each time you blow something out of the sky, alright?"

Her grin widened.

"I always do."

Ezra waited there a moment before his smile faded and he grabbed for his other lightsaber.

"And the green one?" Tharin inquired knowingly. "Are you still planning on what you told me?"

He smiled softly and let out a breath.

"Yes, I'm giving it to Cade before we part ways on Csaus. Once we find the exact location of Palpatine's base, whether it be the students or the expansionary defense fleet who finds him first, Cade is my padawan, my responsibility, and he's been long overdue for a saber of his own for years now."

"Especially because of his destiny battle with Krayt." Eryth nodded knowingly, a story she wasn't entirely supposed to be aware of, but considering Cade was like an older brother to her, this tale of his destiny was not a secret that was kept from her for very long. Eryth held the saber close, half tempted to thrust it back into her father's hand as she stepped forward. "It's nice that you're looking out for us, _Ticsi,_ but what about you? What weapons will you have? You've wielded these sabers my whole life. What do you plan on taking into battle?"

He shrugged, a bit of coy defiance sneaking in as he stroked his beard.

"I started this war with a slingshot and a blaster, I suppose I'll just end it the same way? I'll know what to do when the times comes, as will you and all the others when it matters most." 

"And know that I'll give him the best of the line in order to defend himself, don't worry about that. I do still design weapons after all?"

"Yes _Tin'mi."_

With a sigh, the three waited in silence, all making very slow and reluctant moves towards the front door, bags already packed and waiting by the wall.

"I suppose it's time."

"Do you want a ride to Csaus with us, dear?"

She returned the question with a wicked smirk and shook her head.

"Not a chance!"

She loved flying, a trait she no doubt inherited from the both of her parents. They taught her young and once she was old enough for her own ship, she refused to ever ride backseat in an aircraft again. With a laugh Tharin and Ezra watched her hop eagerly into her Clawcraft before they climbed into their own. She waved to them once from the viewport, before lifting off without another hesitation, and disappearing out of the sky in a small streak of white.

Having the inventor of the ship as your mother had its perks in Eryth's eyes, but even so, Ezra and Tharin never upgraded and kept the first model as their personal ship. It had been altered to fit two people of course, but it was still wisened in battle scars and old dents that never truly buffed out. Their craft told a story, the story of their time together and everything they had been through. It was a reliable piece of machinery and neither would trade those memories for any upgrade in the Ascendancy.

"It feels like just yesterday we were Eryth's age, flying across the galaxy, learning secrets, hunting for truths, fighting battles..."

"I know..." He chuckled. "I was a lot younger then. My back was better."

He groaned comically and she laughed.

"You're not old enough to make those types of excuses yet, _Ch'eo beo._ If Thrawn can still get out and fight, then so can you at fifty-three."

"Thrawn isn't human!" Ezra laughed back. "And I mean that in the insulting workaholic way, not in the obvious way!"

"I know." She hummed and tapped a finger to her chin. "Though, I am still working on a way to help your brittle human bodies age a bit more gracefully like ours do. That's hard to do with only six unwilling test subjects at my disposal!" She laughed a little dryly and nudged him after the joke fell into a long moment of tense silence. "Oh, I'm not worried, Ezra. I know you're still just as durable as you were back then. The Ascendancy needs you in the fight, just as it needs me in the labs and Eryth in the skies. I suppose no matter how many years may pass, this is just what we're meant to do."

"At least we're good at it?"

She chuckled and kissed him, tracing the scars along his face and into his beard as he blushed a bit and set the coordinates for the short range jump to Csaus.

"That we are, _Sevicsi._ " She placed her head on his chest, feeling the warmth instantly sooth her face and listening to the slow breathing of his lungs as well as the soft heartbeat against her ear for a long moment before lifting back into her chair. "Just promise me to be as careful as you can. No more new scars or any of those "almost dying" stories this time around, alright?"

"Hey, it's me we're talking about?"

She smirked and rolled her eyes.

"You make my point." 

He chuckled back as the ship took off into the swirling stars and streaks of blue, ready to get the next part of their mission officially underway.

"Alright, love, I promise."


	2. Reassemble

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Palpatine's message spreads far and wide, a few familiar war veterans decide it's time to get their crew back together for one final fight. All of them meet up to make a plan together, but none are quite sure where it is they should start. That is, until an unlikely old ally gives them the news they've so desperately been waiting for, and the entire galaxy springs into action.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Posted on: January 16, 2020
> 
> So this one takes a few liberties from my previous Jacen Syndulla fics, but none that should hinder the reading process. All you need to know is that he is dyslexic, has a ID-10 Seeker droid companion named Clank, and is not strong with the Force though he does have brief flickers and moments of Force sensitivity.  
> Enjoy!

##  _3:45 AM_ on the planet, _Gatalenta:_

“GAH!”

_“BREE BOO BER RRR WER REEP?”_

“Wha— What?” Jacen panted. “Clank?”

He was a lot harder to see in the dark without all of the colorful decals Jacen usually painted on him, the sleek black carapace still in his "professional paint-job" palette from their last assignment. Those were his commanding officer's words, not his, but as a pilot in the New Republic navy, Jacen didn't get much say in the matter when it came to adding a little more personality to his droid. Still, Jacen could make out the disk shaped seeker droid floating over to his bedside in the darkness, the faint blue and red glowing lights blinking from the orbital lenses as Clank repeated himself.

“No, not a nightmare…” he replied breathlessly, throwing his legs over the bed and letting his bare feet touch the cold floor. His body was sweating, instantly cooled by the night air of the room as the sheets unstuck themselves from his skin. He'd learned to live with having warmer than average blood and skin thanks to his partial Twi'lek genetics, but this was different than the typical "cold sweat" he was used to waking from. He rubbed his face in his hands and took in a breath to steady himself, though his voice still came out shaky and disturbed. "It felt too real to be a nightmare..."

_"REE BER WOO REE?"_

“A warning… at least I think? I don’t know exactly. Maybe we should call Mom and tell her what’s going on? Something tells me she’ll want to hear about it.”

_“RRR WEE BER BREEP BLIP BROO?”_

“The Force?” He made a grumbling noise and scratched vigorously at his green hair, the comment hitting him with all the complicated emotions he avidly tried to avoid thinking about for most of his life. “I don’t— I don't know? Maybe? You know I’m not good with that sort of stuff. Just call the _Ghost_ and wake Mom up, will you? I have a bad feeling about this.”

The droid booped affirmatively and patched into the complimentary terminal across the apartment suite as Jacen walked over slowly and tried to think of what exactly he was going to say.

**_*PING!*_ **

The light of the holo-projector filled the dark room with a ray of blinding blue, its calling song ringing a gentle tune until a tired sounding voice and an equally tired but more hostile sounding droid answered the receiver from the other end.

 _"WAH! BAH BER WAH BAH BER! WAH BAH BER! BAH BER WAH BAH WER BAH!"_

“Chopper, stop it!" Hera scolded tiredly, her bare green arm wafting down at him from her bunk. "Who is it?”

“Mom?”

It was as if all of her energy had suddenly slapped back into place at the sound of that single word spoken. Jacen and Clank watched her leap down from her bunk and hurry closer to the monitor, her eyes growing firm and her voice snapping instantly into that overprotective motherly tone she'd used with him all his life.

“Jacen! What's wrong? Are you okay?”

“No… yeah, no… I’m alright, it’s just that… well, I just had one heck of a wake-up call and I needed to talk to you about it.”

“Did you have a nightmare, luv?" She asked, patronizing him with the soothing lull of her voice. “Aww, honey! You haven’t let me help with one of those since you were nine years o—”

“Focus Mom!” He said quickly, _softly,_ but quickly. “Don’t get nostalgic on me yet. I called because I’m a little worried. You know how you always told me Ezra and dad had these sort of vivid premonition-like nightmares, and that most of the time this was a sign that something really _really_ bad was about to happen?”

“Yes?” She replied, her tone now concerned as she drew the vowel sounds out and lifted a brow in his direction.

Jacen rubbed his chest and neck, the arm moving around to the back of his head as he struggled to say what he needed to say out loud without also sounding like a total idiot. It was obvious that these sort of episodes made him uncomfortable, but it was something nobody else could really help him with. _Not really..._ If anyone in the galaxy knew something about this sort of thing, and would be able to talk with him about it at three in the morning, then it would be his mother.

“And..." he continued nervously. "You know how I’m not the best with the Force, but I still get those little moments from time to time? Yeah, so I just want to know if this might have been one of those times, and I thought maybe you could help me sort it out.”

“You think you’ve had some kind of vision?" She frowned, her tone never once hinting that she didn't believe him or thought he was confused or mistaken.

 _Of course she wouldn't though,_ Jacen thought. _She was his mother!_

He felt instantly comforted by that fact as her face studied his and she asked him a follow up question.

"What did you see exactly? Tell me all the details you can.”

And so he did.

“Well at first, I was in a bar with some of the other pilots and we were all having a good time. Music was playing, people were dancing, and playing darts, placing bets... We were drinking, brawling a little—"

Hera lifted her brow and shot him a warning look. Grown man or not, he was still her son, and it was probably best if he kept the more _risqué_ after hours hobbies of his life to himself.

He cleared his throat and gave her an honoree smirk in return, a sheepish shrug thrown in to allude his innocence in the dream, but all of that faded quickly once he continued on with his story.

"But then everybody vanished and the music cut out. I was all alone except for one person who I could feel suddenly sitting next to me. He popped up out of nowhere and told me that he liked my arm tattoo before taking away my drink and downing it himself. Obviously, I was about to both thank him and punch him in the face at the same time, but then I looked up at him and wondered if I was either drunk or dreaming when I saw who it was.” He paused, watching closely for her reaction as he dropped his head a little. “Dad. It was dad…”

Hera studied him, her eyes softening though the brows revealed her true concern.

"And?"

“He told me that something was coming and that I needed to be ready for it. That’s all I was able to make out though because the harder I tried to focus on him and his voice, the softer it got. Eventually he was just a blur of colors and no words were actually coming out of his mouth. No matter what I did I couldn't bring him back into focus! He must have realized I couldn't understand him anymore because then he pointed to the wall across the bar, and when I looked I only saw him standing next to the jukebox. Sound started coming back out of it, only this time it wasn’t music. It was kind of staticy, but it sounded like some dark, gravelly tone... _an old man's voice,_ I thought? Then dad touched it before disappearing completely, and when he did, the voice in the music player got louder and clearer. It said something about “a work of generations” some “great error being corrected”, he said that it was a day of victory and revenge, the day of the Sith.”

“The Sith?" She repeated, a little shocked to hear a word so foreign after all these years. "No, the Sith are all supposed to be long gone. Tell me, do you recognize the voice of the old man on the music player?”

“Not really, but when he talked it made the entire bar feel cold. His tone had a sort of pronunciation to it though that made him seem like he was good at giving ominous speeches. Maybe a politician?”

Hera bit her lip.

“Hold that thought. Give me one second.” 

She got up and darted off-screen, many sounds of clamoring and rustling echoing the background as Chopper dodged obstacles she'd tossed over her shoulder. He grunted at her in aggravated binary before she finally returned on screen and slipped a disk into her holo-projector.

“I’m sending over a file of a piece of old Empire Day propaganda from Lothal. Let me know if the voices match.”

“Old is right!" He whistled. "We have got to talk about your hoarding issues, Mom.”

“Your dad was the tidy one in the family.” She smirked. “Just play the tape for me.”

He received the file and clicked to play it as a clean-cut old man came on the holo-viewer wearing simple yet pristine robes. His voice was very similar to that of the one in his dream, minus the harsh gravelly tone that made him sound more like a ghost than a man. This person almost sounded friendly even, though there was something about him that wasn't sitting right with the rest of Jacen's impressions of him. He focused on the clip for a few long moments and after deciding it was a match, he nodded and cut the feed.

“Crank up the creepiness of it, and yeah, it's pretty close? That might be him? Who is that anyway?” He blinked, his eyes going wide with realization the moment the question left his lips. “Hold on… is that the old Emperor? Why does he look like that? He’s supposed to be all spooky and wrinkled with the yellow eyes and the nightmare face.”

“They polished his visuals for the commercials, but we all knew it wasn’t real.” She let out a breath. “Jacen, the details are too vivid. There's no way you would have known about these things out of the blue like this. Honey, I don’t think that this was just a normal dream.”

“So, something really is coming? Something involving this emperor? But he died back before the war ended, didn’t he? Master Luke saw to that. Even if he somehow survived, the dude was human and that would make him nearly—” He counted to himself. “A hundred and twenty-something years old. There’s no way!”

She chewed on that thought, her head rocking as she watched her own decisions piling up on each side of her.

“I think you should get back here. I’d feel better if you were close, especially since that recent First Order scare. Are you still on that extended shore leave? Where are you right now?”

“An apartment outside of Abrafrey, a few miles west of the capital on Gatalenta. After the ceremonies for Amilyn Holdo, they told a few of us to stay behind and make sure no First Order scouts came by looking for revenge, and have been moving us around the planet in shifts. I guess the bucket-heads have more important things on their minds because it’s been peaceful here the last few weeks.”

“I’m going to make a few calls and prep the _Ghost._ Meet me at these coordinates as soon as you can. I think it may be time to officially join up with the Resistance.”

“Is that okay?" He asked, flinging up a couple of air quotes as he rolled his eyes at the recent memory that had shot to mind. "Isn't the New Republic basically "forcing" you to lay low because of all the unwarranted arrests the First Order made to retired Rebellion generals and Resistance sympathizers? That’s the whole point of that staged “not-retirement/ extended leave of absence" thing they pulled after Sabine and I got you off the chopping block for that attempted arrest they made on you a few months ago." Now his face mixed with a sour expression as he recalled the frustration of the way that story ended, and he flung out his hands in exasperation as he finished retelling the tale. "They made you step down because they were afraid of what the First Order might do to them if they kept you on base. You're supposed to stay under the radar until things die down, but if you leave now, Mom... well... then they may not let you come back at all. I know how much your job means to you. Are you sure you're willing to throw it all away?”

She let out a soft breath, her eyes closed as she listened to his rantings. She understood why things happened the way they had, but that didn't mean she needed to agree with them. Hera also had a strong hunch that her absence from the New Republic was for more reasons than merely weakening a target on a military installation.

“I think that whole ordeal was just a convenient excuse in order to get me out of the way anyway, son. I’m old, and my opinions ruffled a few feathers of the younger New Republic leaders and senators. Plus, it’ll take a lot more than getting captured to keep me out of the fight!" She let out a content sigh and nodded to herself as she grew more confident about the rest of her statement. "This is something I should have done years ago. I just thought staying where I was would be better in the long run, but I guess the run has run out of reach, and the New Republic isn't the answer. They're too afraid to make a good move in this battle. No... the Resistance is where we'll do the most good now.” 

“Alright..." He sighed and offered out a shrug. "Well I trust your decision. To be honest, I feel like they sort of did the same thing to me. You make one comment about Starkiller Base or helping the Resistance to your commanding officer and the next thing you know, you're on Gatalenta doing meaningless patrols with a handful of rookie pilots. Oh well? I guess I always did see myself more of a rogue flyer than I did an X-Wing pilot anyway?”

“I know you did…" She smirked, the fond memories of his youth sparking a bit of light back to her face. "And I can't force you to just abandon your post, Jacen, but if you're willing to at least bend the rules a little, then humor an old woman’s paranoia and drop by for a visit anyway. I have a bad feeling that this is going to get a lot worse before it gets bet—”

She cut off mid-sentence and the holo-projector fizzled out into sudden blue static.

“Mom?”

Jacen whacked the side of the terminal a few times.

“Mom!? You still there?” He turned to his droid. “Is she still there?”

Clank whirred a negative, followed by sounds of confusion after checking the systems, which he revealed were all working perfectly fine.

"Maybe a malfunction on Mom's end?" He wondered, before a voice entered the empty room and sent a chill racing up his spine.

_“At last—"_

Jacen gasped and backed away from the terminal.

_"The work of generations is complete.The great error is corrected. The day of victory is at hand. The day of revenge. The Day of the Sith. At last the work of generations is complete.The great error is corrected. The day of victory is at hand. The day of revenge. The Day of the Sith. At last—”_

“That’s my message! The one from the jukebox in my dream." He snapped to it with a point. "Quick! Clank, use that Lothal transmission and run a comparison on those two voices. Tell me I'm not crazy!"

He did, booping out a soft confirmation when finished. The two voices were identical, one and the same so far as all of Clank's processors could tell.

With a groan that was equal parts satisfied as it was disappointed, Jacen waved his hand through the air in the direction of his projector.

"Shut it off, Clank...” 

The message stopped, leaving the two in the quiet darkness as both Jacen and the ID-10 shared a look of concern, _or— well—_ as much concern as a droid could show anyway.

 _“BRR WRR BREEP BOO BLEEP?”_ he confirmed inquisitively.

“Yeah, I think we’d better listen to Mom too. You got those coordinates from her, buddy?” 

_"BRR REEP!"_

“Good. Then let’s bail before anyone around here wakes up.”

Clank felt it was safe to mention the whole “going AWOL” situation to him again, and whether he was truly serious about abandoning the military, but Jacen shrugged all of it off.

“We used to do this all the time when I was a kid, remember? We won't get caught."

The droid argued in muttered binary all the ways those situations were emphatically different from this one, and how they absolutely would be noticed missing from their squadron by everybody there in the morning.

"Well, nobody will miss us!" He retorted. "Besides, what's the worst they can do?"

Clank proceeded to list at least five worse things they could do to him, the minimum being house arrest and the maximum being a death sentence. 

Jacen lifted a brow and shot him that same chiding look that his mother had just given him a few minutes before.

"You're exaggerating. The New Republic doesn't execute people for going AWOL." He shook his head and slipped on a shirt, his arms cutting through the air as if to sever their whole conversation. "Besides I only joined up to make Mom happy and help people, but if she's not even going to be there, why should I? I can do all that and fly anywhere, not just in the stuffy navy." He grumbled under his breath. "Especially not the stuffy navy." With a final wave of his arm, he motioned closer to him while whispering fervently through now gritted teeth. "Now just come on!"

Jacen's thoughts were mixed between the excitement of what was going on, and the fear that what it was might be bigger than anything he’s ever dealt with. His adrenaline was starting to go either way, so rather be consumed with worrisome "what-if's" he chose to feel mostly excited. Sure, he would probably need to return the X-Wing... _eventually?_ For now though, borrowing it to get where he needed to go was within his rights as a pilot. He'd sacrificed a lot as a member of the New Republic navy, and besides, everyone was too busy freaking out about the First Order to really care whether one ship was missing off Gatalenta for a couple of hours to really do anything about it.

He quickly finished dressing himself, grabbed his bag, and then tiptoed silently out the room, Clank following and all the while doing the droid-equivalent of rolling his eyes as he hovered right at his back. In the end what else could he do but tag along? Jacen was a stubborn organic and Clank was even more so in ensuring all the boy's fragile organs kept beating to keep him alive. _As usual..._ It had been this way ever since Clank had known him and Jacen had salvaged him out of that scrap heap as a much smaller yet equally impetuous child. Jacen Syndulla, always pulling him along into dangerous situations... but that was just how things went, and over the years Clank had gotten used to these sorts of off-the-table exploits.

The duo wasted no time in sneaking over to the landing platform and into his X-Wing, taking off before the sunrise had a chance to peak over the horizon of Gatalenta. Clank put in the coordinates and Jacen squinted down at them, focusing to read the ever-shifting set of numbers and letters.

"Now, let's see here... Where exactly is Mom sending us to this time? Lothal? Ryloth?"

Clank whirred and read off the location, a place Jacen knew all too well, and a place that was not only notoriously far away, but also difficult to enter for just any average pilot.

He whistled.

"Good thing I'm not an average pilot?" He muttered to himself. "Alright. Let's do this. Settle in Clank, it's going to be a long ride."

* * *

##  _Meanwhile..._ Somewhere in the Ferra Sector:

Sabine ran to dodge the explosions tailing behind her, going for a leap as fire narrowly singed the torn edges of her cape. She let loose three bombs down the storm drain before shooting off with her jetpack to higher ground, rolling to a stop along an awning overlooking the alley as her pursuers closed in behind her. There were three speeders, six troopers, and big guns on all of them.

_Ten seconds to detonation._

She let out a few breaths before her comms beeped and she blinked unexpectedly, offering a fast glance down to read the message as she counted down mentally to zero.

“Coordinates from Hera?”

She shook her head and grabbed onto the thin railing before she pressed for her gauntlets.

_***BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!*** _

Three massive explosions rocked the ground below, the sounds of crashing metal and screaming men echoing below as the night sky lit up in a beautiful blend of orange and red. Silence followed soon after as the smoke cleared to reveal a scene free of any moving hostiles, a black dot taking off in the far distance and then shooting away to lightspeed in a thread-sized streak of blue.

 _Hopefully them._ She thought. 

The First Order had been getting awfully eager with their arrests lately, and if they thought you might be a threat or even just a small nuisance, well... they found any reason to make a sudden arrest, false charges or no. That's what they tried to do with Hera a few months back, and if Sabine hadn't gotten word of that when she did, then she and Jacen might not have been able to cut off that transport ship in time to save her. Meanwhile, the New Republic had been too scared to do anything about it, not after what had happened to the Hosnian System. Knowing this, she couldn't just stand by while friends and allies she knew were being taken and executed for petty reasons! So for the last few months, Sabine had been tracking down any leads to this sort of activity that she could get her hands on.

Today was the third attempt in this sector alone. However, these troopers in particular had made a very stupid call in trying to arrest a Mandalorian target who appeared on their hit list. They had tripled their guns and their manpower, sure, but that didn't amount to much when their target had friends on the planet with him, and if they thought one Mandalorian was tough, they were in for a rude awakening when they realized they had to deal with four.

_Something tells me they've learned their lesson... or... what's left of them?_

After taking in a few more breaths, Sabine sighed and reached for her comm-mic.

“Paz, please tell me they got away because I do not want to do that all again.”

“The package is safe, Fulcrum. We’re regrouping at the rendezvous.”

“Good." She replied with a firm nod. "But, go without me. It seems I have a family matter to look into.”

“This is the way.”

“This is the way.” She replied, cutting the feed and snickering to herself as she removed her helmet and ruffled her hair, letting a fresh breath of cold, albeit slightly singed air in through her nose that was much appreciated after all the running and fighting the evening had demanded. “Man those tribe guys are so formal. It’s like talking to my grandparents. Then again, it is the remnants of Death Watch, so what can you do?”

She pressed for the buttons on her datapad screen in her manacles and pulled the message back up. She knew the coordinates well, but that was a very long trip to plan out without any warning or explanation attached.

“Let’s see what exactly it is that Hera's up to.” She clicked for the comms, tuning into their own channel where hopefully Hera was waiting to give her some answers. “Spectre Two, this is Spectre Five. I need clarification on those coordinates you sent over? Over?”

No reply came back, only static.

“Ummm… Spectre Two, I’m off-world at the moment, and this channel isn’t exactly the most secure. Do you copy? Spectre Three, are either of you out there?”

Still no reply.

“Strange. I guess I’ll just reroute the servers to another channel? I should get back to my ship first. I can encrypt the message a lot better from the cockpit.”

She put her helmet back on and hopped down from the awning before sneaking a path through a few alleyways and back streets and finally deciding that no one was following her. With a clear route, she then wandered out of the small town and out into the fields where her ship was waiting for her return. It was perfectly camouflaged thanks to the Noghri technology they’d given her after she helped them heal their sick world from the Empire. The modified Kom'rk-class fighter itself had been a gift long ago as well, and by putting those two presents together, she had modified one heck of a spaceship for herself. Not only that, but throughout the years she’d been able to paint it as vividly as her imagination desired thanks to the useful cloaking tech. Nobody could ever complain that the designs were attracting too much attention because you couldn't hit what you couldn't see, right?

Once inside, she performed the necessary back-root extensions to her comms and then tried a final time to get into contact with Hera and ask her about the coordinates she sent over. They looked to be the same ones sending them to Lira San, but why Hera wanted to go all the way out there so suddenly was beyond her.

With one final click, the comms were active, but it was not Hera’s voice that returned her call.

_“At last the work of generations is complete.The great error is corrected. The day of victory is at hand. The day of revenge. The Day of the Sith.”_

Her eyes went wide and she moved to another station. The same message playing on repeat as she keyed her personal channel with the tribe and attempted to contact Paz again. Nothing… still only Palapatine’s voice, still only the mass warning on every station.

“There’s no way…” she started, shaking the thought out of her mind and forcing the sudden cold off of her skin. “It’s been thirty years. There’s just no way.”

After moments of just stitting there debating facts and theories, she could only stare down at the coordinates Hera gave her and let out a tired sigh.

“You know something, don't you Hera?" She mulled over it for a few long moments and let out another defeated breath. "Well, I guess there’s only one way for me to find out for sure?”

The fighter started up, taking off towards the planet in question before Sabine made the jump to hyperspace. Something weird was going on, something that she had absolutely no warning knowledge of beforehand. What kind of Fulcrum was she if she couldn't be the one to share these types of warnings with the rest of her confidants? With a frown, she bit her lip, trying to force the ghostly voice of Palpatine out of her mind. It couldn't be true... sure the Force was weird and things like this sometimes happened, but to him of all people? Nobody takes severe electrocution and a plummet as long as planet's core before exploding and then just magically gets back up after thirty years of being dead. 

_A clone maybe? A droid like those spotted on Jakku during the final days of the Empire?_ Sabine could only speculate, but one thing was certain... she'd get information on Lira San one way or another, even if it meant the visit lead her to a different place by the end of the day. Zipping across star systems, finding out the facts that people didn't want getting leaked... This was just the way her life worked out these days, but at least she enjoyed it.

Sabine chuckled dryly and leaned back in her seat.

"I'm getting too old for this..." 

* * *

##  _Later,_ on the hidden world of Lira San:

“What's this? A message from Hera, huh?” Zeb mused, pausing his run as the cool morning sunrise of Lira San warmed his fur and made all the surrounding plants and vines glisten with golden streaks of light. He stared down at his wrist and read the text, tilting his head to the side as it only gave him a set of coordinates. His coordinates. He scratched his head and looked around at the pathway confused. “Odd?”

He typed for the comms on his bracer and readied to speak, but only a very chilly, very familiar sounding man came back to answer him. 

_“At last the work of generations is complete.The great error is corrected. The day of victory is at hand. The day of revenge. The Day of the Sith.”_

“Karabasts!”

He flipped stations, the same message repeating over and over no matter where he tuned into. Finally, he shut down the device before taking in a few breaths, his ears flattened low as he rubbed his head and tried to wrap his mind around what he’d just heard.

 _Was it a prank? No… Not all the way out here. Not on Lira San! Hera’s coordinates… she must know something he didn’t and just didn’t have the time to call him._ The time distortion between her location and his meant that she could have sent this message out hours ago, but the coordinates were for Lira San, so… did that mean she was coming here? Could she already be on her way?

“Sekuru!” the young voice called, snapping him out of his darkening thoughts as she ran back towards him with alongside her younger brother and sister. “What’s the matter, why’d you stop?”

“Uh...” He stammered, coming back together as he blinked and shook everything away. "Sorry Orellia, Tilda, Kaizen... It seems I'm just no match for you kids today."

The three small children leaped onto his back, dangling from his arms as he attempted to mask both the message on his comm as well as his growing unrest. They laughed and he tried his best to match their peaceful joy, but the worry still managed to seep through his voice as little as they wrestled around him.

"Sekuru?" his oldest, Orellia, mused, catching on briefly to his sudden change in demeanor. "Are you okay?"

His ears flattened again, but this time he played it off with a soft grin and a pop of his neck and shoulders, setting each child back to the ground as they stared up at him with three sets of wide round eyes.

“Yeah!" He lied, masking it with a chuckle. "Sorry kids, but I think we should cut our morning training a little short today. Sekuru has some things he needs to check on back at home.”

“Aww man!” They grumbled, the youngest two the most upset as they jumped around and complained reasons why he should stay. Orellia, however, was old enough to grasp the severity of whatever it was he must need to go do, and managed to coax her younger siblings back to silence.

“I know, I know...” he soothed. "I promise to make it up to you. This is just something important I need to check on."

"Should we get Amai and Baba?"

"No, no..." Zeb shook his head. "It's nothing to worry them over, and certainly nothing to make you kids worry over, but thanks for being concerned about your old Sekuru." 

He teased a poke at her shirt before flicking her chin and then vigorously rubbing her hair, the entirety of her small head fitting in the pal of his head like an unripened meiloorun. It made both of them laugh as he moved to tease the other two and then after a final hearty laugh, he stood taller, back straightening as he motioned them all to attention. They obliged in an instant, each snapping into the stance of a soldier, their faces comically serious in a way that made Zeb's heart melt from sheer adorable exposure.

“Run on home now and play. Umm, err— At ease warriors! That’s an order!” He saluted them, his acting prompting the three young Lasat to mirror his movements before hugging him around the waist and running off with laughter trailing behind. "And be careful on the path home!"

"We will!"

"Bye!" They all shouted, Orellia the last to wave before she turned to chase down her speedy brother and sister.

As soon as they were out of sight, Zeb finally allowed himself to frown again, and made a hasty retreat back to his home, hurdling the logs and canyons along their running path with ease, the automatic movements long memorized by this point after so many mornings at training on the forest path that he himself had made many years before. Though, he always played his true speed and skills down in order to watch over the kids and make sure they didn't get hurt.

He made it back into the village sneaking across his yard and in through the back door quietly so as to not wake up—

“Did you have a nice run?” Alexsandr asked, his old voice cracking slightly as he shuffled slowly over to the counter. “Hmmm... You're early today? Grandkids run circles around you already?”

“You’re up?!” Zeb asked, jumping a little, surprised by the sudden outburst, soft as it was.

Kallus noticed the micro movement in an instant and squinted his wrinkled eyes together with suspicion.

“What?”

“What!?” Zeb shrugged back, his voice cracking. He shook his head, trying to mask any nerves he might have had in his voice, but it didn't seem to be working, and so he moved to change the subject. “Wh-what are you doing? You’re supposed to be taking it easy. Here, what do you need? I can get it…”

Alex swatted his encroaching hands away and pointed a finger at him before setting down the empty caf cup.

“I know that look. What are you about to tell me that you hoped I wouldn’t find out?”

“Alex, I—”

The old man shot him a look, a very stern, very sudden look that never faltered into making him talk. The man should have been an ex-loyalty officer rather a former member of the ISB. Maybe it was the Fulcrum title that made him so good at getting exactly what information he wanted out of somebody, but it worked on Zeb nearly every single time.

Defeated and a bit deflated, the old Lasat lowered his head and offered out the comm on his wrist.

“Alright, fine. I was in the middle of my run with the kids when I received a sudden message from Hera. No explanation. It only had a set of coordinates encrypted on it.”

Squinting a bit, Kallus tilted the screen for a better angle and read them for himself.

“I don’t have my glasses, but correct me if those aren’t reading out our current location?”

“They are." He nodded. "I was going to call and ask her what she meant by that, but every comm-wave station is being blocked out by a… message.”

“Even the Lira San channels? Nobody off-world should have access to those.”

“I know, but somehow they do. The message—” He paused. “Look, I need you to keep calm. We don’t know what it is yet, and you know how you get with your heart—”

“Play me the message, Garazeb.”

With only a second to waiver, he did play it, Kallus’ eyes going wide as soon as the unexpected sound of the Emperor threatened his eardrums. He had to sit down and reached behind him before falling back onto a stool.

“It’s fake!” He breathed, head shaking. “It has to be.”

Zeb shook his head and placed a large, comforting hand on top of his shoulder.

“No one out here would know how to fake something like this. I think Hera’s message was the last she could get out before the comms got jammed. I don’t know if she knew something, or if it was just a coincidence, but I think she might be coming here because of it.”

“Most likely to join in the fight against the First Order, I assume? Probably to recruit us into the efforts of the Resistance as well, I'd wager?”

“Possibly.”

He was quiet for a few moments, his brown eyes contemplating something dire.

“Alex, I can—”

“You should go with her,” he interrupted quickly.

Zeb blinked, trying to make sure he'd just heard him right.

“What?”

“You heard me! Go with Hera. If she’s coming all the way out here for your help, you’d be stupid not to go. She obviously needs you. The galaxy needs you. Besides, I'm not too keen on all the work we did going to waste now that a band of corrupt children want to revive the Empire and apparently reanimate the dead kriffing Emperor!”

“Kal!" He warned, his hand squeezing down a bit firmer before Kallus could work himself and his blood pressure up too badly.

Eventually he sighed and took in a breath to calm his nerves, wafting the air and Zeb's hand away as he moved to grip between his eyes in curt thought.

"You should still go." he repeated, his voice a low, calm hum in his throat.

"But I can’t just leave!?" Zeb argued, his arms flailing out at invisible points he was trying to make across the room. "What about you? What about the kids? The cat?!”

Kallus chuckled softly, the Tooka hopping up as if on cue for one of them to pet her. He scratched under her chin with an amused smile and afterwards reached back for his empty cup.

“I’m fine." He assured. "We’re fine! You go where you’re needed most.”

“But your leg’s been acting up, and after that last health scare—”

“Zeb… Zeb…” He calmed. “I’m old, I’m paying for the price of the mistakes I made in my youth, nothing more. I’m fine, and trust me, I’ll still be here when you get back. Now—” He patted Zeb's chest a few times and shoved the cup into his hand and then his hand into his chest. “Get me some caf. There’s something I need to grab for you before Hera gets here.”

“What is…” He stammered, looking to the cup confused before craning his neck after him as he left the room. “Alex!?” After a moment of no reply, he gave up with a sigh, content to brew a small cup of caf for the both of them.

 _Maybe it would ease their nerves a little?_ He decided.

By the time it was done, Kallus walked back into the kitchen and held up a hanger with a very familiar-looking uniform staring back at the old Lasat's eyes.

“Here. I think you’re going to need this.”

“My old uniform?” 

He smiled wide.

“Can’t go fighting tyranny without it, now can you?”

Zeb chuckled. 

“Will it even fit? It’s been thirty years since I’ve worn it last, Al.”

“Oh, I might’ve made a few alterations over the years?” He said with a thoughtful hum. 

Zeb reached for the old garment and stroked the collar with his thumb. In red thread it read “remember”. Remember Lasan? Remember the Rebellion? Remember their family? Whatever it was meant to signify made a dozen more memories rush back into Zeb's mind, and he assumed that was the purpose of the embroidery in the first place. In addition to that there were also three tiny purple paw prints on the chest piece. One, he noted, meant for each of their three grandkids.

Zeb whistled softly, admiring the additions to his old uniform.

“When did you find the time to do all this?”

Kallus shrugged.

“I had to find some hobbies once I had to stop playing soldier with you and the kids.”

“Playing? Hey now, that’s real training!”

“Zeb, you take them out for ice cream afterwards...”

He opened his mouth, ready to argue, but closed it shortly after, bobbing his head in reluctant surrender.

Kallus set the garment on the counter and placed both of his hands on top of Zeb's, not even covering a fraction of the space, but keeping them together in his own way as he stroked them gently into his lap. They were still rough, still marked with callused fingers and tiny scars, but wrinkled now with the wisdom of age and struggle. The warmth was what Zeb noticed the most though, and flipped his palms upward to wrap his fingers over the tops.

“You do what you need to do." Kallus said in a soft almost whispering tone. "I’ll hold the place down until you get back.”

“Thanks Alex.”

He leaned forward and wrapped him in a hug, Kallus patting his back until he felt a calming vibration and heard the soft noises coming from above. He stopped suddenly and held him there, his voice playfully accusatory as one brow rose high over his head.

“Garazeb, are you purring?”

“It’s Mimzy…” He replied quickly, the blush practically heard in his voice.

Kallus stared at the cat who was perched halfway across the room and he rolled his eyes at the outright lie before settling deeper into the embrace as the patting and the purring continued.

“Whatever you say, Zeb." He smiled. "Whatever you say.”

* * *

The _Ghost_ landed on Lira San shortly after noon time, and it was welcomed warmly there by the locals in Zeb’s village as the old Lasat and human man came up to meet its familiar pilot at the platform.

Hera waved to them with a bright smile, taking them in for the first time in ages. Kallus, she noticed, was sporting a wooden cane, something he hadn't had the last time she'd visited Lira San. That, the old wrinkles setting into his face, and his limp all appeared more prominent now, and only helped to reveal just how quickly the age was catching up to him— how fast it was catching up to them all.

"It's good to see you both!"

"You too!" Zeb greeted as Hera walked up and gave both him and Kallus a big hug.

"I hope I'm not putting you out too badly dropping in like this."

"Never." Kallus replied, his warm smile comforting even with all the bad things going on around them.

Hera savored it for just a few seconds more before her frown returned and both her and Chopper shared a worried look.

"I take it you're here about the messages?" Zeb asked.

She nodded.

"So they reached you out here too, huh?"

"Yeah... Heck of a way to start the day, isn't it?"

"You're telling me!" She sighed. "Jacen actually called me a few minutes before the broadcasting started."

"Jacen did?" Kallus repeated curiously. "He's still on Gatalenta though isn't he? It would have been maybe oh— three or four in the morning. What was he doing up at that hour?"

"He had a nightmare— a vision actually."

"Rare for him." The man mused, the same soft concern laced in his voice as was in her own.

Zeb agreed and nodded his head, a brief flicker of worry showing in his eyes. 

"He's alright though, right?"

"Yes. He should be on his way to Lira San as we speak. Chopper and I managed to send out a mass-message with the Lira San coordinates to you, Sabine, and maybe even Ezra before the lines got blocked. I had only meant to give them to Jacen, but thought better of it at the last minute, hence the unexplained coordinates."

"You think the others got them?"

As if on cue, Sabine's shuttle came into view, zipping across the sky before circling back at a much slower speed and landing in a neat parking job next to the _Ghost._ The designs on her ship were vibrant and colorful as usual, making the three smile as the helmeted Mandalorian stepped out and hopped down the the ground. She groaned at her knees but shoved it aside as she rose and removed her helmet, brushing the strands of graying purple hair out of her face and fixing her braid before waving joyously at her friends. 

"Hey!" she called out, breaking into a run as she hurried over to them.

"Sabine!" Zeb called, hugging her immediately by lifting her high off of the ground and back again. "It's been too long!"

And thanks for coming without a lot of explanation, Sabine. We're glad you could make it."

"Good timing with that message, Hera. A few seconds before and I might've missed my detonation time, a few seconds later, and well— I might've missed the message?"

"Detonation time?" Kallus asked.

"The First Order still trying to make unwarranted arrests on important figureheads and sympathizers. The New Republic's turned a blind eye to the disappearances, but I've been tracking their movements and trying to prevent as many abductions as I can based on the hit list the Resistance sent over to me, plus a few more I've managed to dig up myself on other worlds."

"Thanks again for that," Hera winked, and Sabine offered her a polite shrug. 

"So, wait. You're taking them all on by yourself?" Zeb chuckled. "That's pretty impressive."

She smirked.

"I do some, but not so much lately. I had help from a few old friends at the last sector and they've been assisting me for the past couple of weeks."

"Good to hear. True allies seem to be a rare thing these days."

"Oh, to be young again!" Kallus sighed. "Being a Fulcrum isn't an easy job, not on the mind or on the body."

"You're telling me!" Sabine teased. "I wouldn't mind going back in time ten or twenty years. Bad guys seem to be getting younger and younger these days."

They shared a laugh, but Sabine's pleasantries faded as she looked to the small huddle with a growing seriousness.

"So, what do we know about the messages from Palpatine?"

"We know that they're on every station," Zeb replied. "Even the private or distant ones like on Lira San."

"And we know that they were such a large disturbance even Jacen managed to have a vision about them before it actually started."

"Really?" She frowned. "Is he okay?"

Hera smiled. The concern all of them felt for her son warmed her heart and made it feel like their little ragtag family had never gone their separate ways all those years ago.

"He's on his way here." She informed. "The two of us may incidentally be going AWOL from the New Republic, but when has that sort of threat ever stopped us from doing what's right in the first place?"

Chopper buzzed in agreement, the old astromech stating that he much rather preferred it this way. Things were getting a little too stuffy and peaceful lately for his tastes back in the New Republic.

Sabine lifted a brow at the cynical droid and then looked back to the group.

"So what's the plan?"

"Not here." Hera shook her head. "Maybe we should all go inside and wait for Jacen?"

"I'll start on some tea," Kallus said, turning towards the door.

"Uh... I'll help." Zeb added, rushing after him.

"Hera, you coming?" Sabine called back, watching as her friend merely waited in the yard looking up at the yellow skies.

"I think I'll wait for him out here for a few more minutes. You go on ahead."

She nodded, but stepped back towards her anyway, both standing in silence for a few seconds as they watched the golden clouds rolling over Lira San. It was so peaceful they could almost forget about the transmissions and war going on. _Almost..._

"So, do you think Ezra knows about this too?" Sabine blurted.

"I sent him the coordinates, but you know how hard it is for messages to get through to him all the way out there." Hera frowned, her hands rubbing worriedly up and down her folded arms. "If Jacen sensed Palpatine's presence, than there's no doubt in my mind Ezra did too. I'm sure he and the Chiss are way ahead of us in doing something to prepare for what's to come next. They always are. I'm just glad their on our side these days... or as "on our side" as they can be, I suppose?"

Sabine chuckled. 

"Yeah... I'm sure you're right."

"It almost feels like we're getting the crew back together, doesn't it?"

Hera returned the nostalgic gleam, if only for a moment.

"I only wish it were under better circumstances."

"Are they ever better to begin with?" Sabine nudged.

Hera closed her eyes and chuckled gently.

"No... I suppose not."

The two women brightened when they saw Jacen's X-Wing break orbit a few minutes later, both waving as he noticed their ships and made for a landing spot of his own.

"Well, I'm going to head in and give you both a moment." She placed a hand on Hera's shoulder and grinned. "It's good to be back... all things considered."

Hera patted her hand and smiled as Jacen stepped out of his X-Wing.

"It is. You know, I forgot how much I missed this."

"Mom! Big Sis!" He called, waving vigorously. He jumped down from his ship, but unlike Sabine, got right back up again, the strength of his youth almost mocking her as he rushed towards them, still waving, still smiling.

Sabine waved back as she walked away, Jacen running up and picking his mother up in a spin before squishing her in a big hug. At the same time, Chopper and Clank traded pleasantries and chose to go inside with Sabine while the mother-son duo caught up. Jacen did receive a sharp pat on the leg from the orange astromech as he passed by though, Clank offering only a polite chirp of binary to Hera as he floated into the house.

"Ouch! Good to see you too!" He laughed, looking down towards his mother once the dangers to his legs had rolled away. "Good to be back. I missed you, Mom."

"You too, son!" she laughed, her voice stretching as she dove in for another hug of her own. "More than you'll ever know! _Mmm-mmm!"_ She squeezed him as hard as she could before releasing her grip once Jacen's green-tinted skin started to turn blue. Then she patted him roughly on the front of his jacket as her eyes searched him up and down, double checking to make sure he was heathy and eating enough. "You look good."

After popping his spine back into place, he rubbed his ear a bit bashfully and shrugged.

"Thanks."

"So, are you ready to join the Resistance and finally become a full-fledged rebel?"

"Mom, I was literally born ready!" He smacked his fists together and then held out a courteous arm to lead her inside. "Shall we?"

She took it and nudged him with the side of her head. His face, the way he smirked, and how he teased the dangers to come... it all reminded her so much of Kanan it was uncanny.

"You worry me sometimes boy, you know that?"

He shrugged.

"What can I say?This type of thing is just in my blood." 

"I know..." She replied to him with a fond hum, her voice calling out once they were inside the house. "Jacen's here everyone!"

He was instantly met with a lot of hugging and greetings to follow as the newly reassembled Spectre Squadron had officially banded together to figure out a way to fix the galaxy.

"Well, now that we're all here," he said, recomposing himself from his miniature family reunion. "Let's talk."

And talk they did. They conversed for hours, going over pros and cons as well as points and facts gathered on all sides. Evidence and months of strategy and incidents all came together as the group wondered now what it was that they should do next. After speaking on points again and again, going over every possible angle they could, they always made it back to the same result. In the end, the answer was clear and everyone there knew it. Hera was the first to bring them all together, so she took it upon herself to do so again for their revival.

“Who's up for one last run for old time’s sake?” She asked.

“Well, hey, I’m in." Zeb nodded, awaiting the chance to give this response for a while now. He gestured to his clothing. "Even broke out the old uniform and everything. Still fits! And you see the designs Alex put into it?”

“They’re good!" Sabine grinned, her eyes giving off that devious flicker they had whenever she got a new inspiration for an art piece. "But I have one more thing I want to add. Actually, I have one for each of you.”

_"WAH BUH BER BAH WAH WER?"_

"Of course, you too, Chopper."

_"REE BEE RRR BOO BREEP?"_

"Sure Clank, I can do one for you too."

She gestured to her shoulder piece which was painted red with five brighter streaks trailing behind, a large blue "5" overlapping the whole scene.

"I made this for the planets destroyed by Starkiller Base, but I added the 5 after thinking back on what got me here, about you guys and all the good we used to do back on the _Ghost_. If we're getting the crew back together, I want to paint our callsigns onto each of you... for old times sake, you know?"

“So you’re in?”

“Hey, I wouldn’t miss it!” She said, leaning back into the chair with what was probably her third cup of tea since their long meeting began. 

She was always cool, and Jacen attempted to mimic the movement before nearly spilling his drink in the process and giving up. He contented to simply crossing his hands back on top of the table and looking as mature as a man in his mid-thirties could look while being surrounded by a group of people who basically raised him.

“Jacen?” His mother asked.

“Of course I'm in!" he responded quickly. "You need a co-pilot who knows the _Ghost_ as well as you do. I'm going to be right up there with you no matter what!”

Sabine stood up suddenly and jabbed a thumb towards the window.

“I’ll leave my ship here. If that’s okay. You’ll need someone on guns in the _Ghost_ and _Phantom.”_

“Me too.” Jacen nodded. "I'll need to return it to the navy when this is all over, so it'll probably be best if I don't scratch it up anymore than it already is.

“Don't worry, I’ll watch over the ships while your gone. I'm a little too old to go rushing back into the fight now. You go figure this out and come back with one hell of a story afterwards, okay?”

“Come on, Kallus...” Hera smirked. “We always have room for one more gunner on board if you’re really interested?”

He laughed and held out a hand.

“Thank you. Truly. But no… I think I’ll leave this one up to younger generations. Or... well... moderately younger.”

Hera and Sabine lifted their brows, but shot him a side smirk of warning as he held up his hands in mock-surrender. _That hadn't come out right_ , but they understood what he'd meant by the comment for the most part.

“Well we’ll try to keep in contact." Zeb grumbled. "If we can manage to get a signal on the comms that isn’t that blasted message anyhow?”

"Now we just need to know where to go?"

"Maybe Ezra and the Chiss can help?"

_***BEEP-BEEP!*** _

"Uh... guys, I don't think we need to worry about that."

They all looked towards Sabine as she held out her wrist.

"Looks like we're getting some new coordinates for the Unknown Regions. It's a mass message going out to all our friendly channels, even a few that I don't recognize! This list of contacts is massive!"

"Are they from Ezra?" Jacen asked.

Sabine made a face, forcing a smile as she read the name of the sender and rolled her eyes.

"Not Ezra..." she hummed.

They all exchanged confused looks before Sabine pressed for the audio. The voice that called out was just as unmistakable as Palpatine's, but at least this one brought a smile to their faces, if not an involuntary eye roll from a few others at the table.

> "Friends, this is Lando Calrissian calling out to you on all channels. We've broken through the communications block and are broadcasting a message of our own to all frequencies. This is an important message, maybe the most important message you'll hear in your life, so pay close attention. This war has been long... and hard... and even though it feels like everything is collapsing around us, there's still hope. As long as one of us is still standing and willing to fight, then there will _always be hope._ There is so much that can be done with just a ragtag group of individuals forced together to fight for what is right. I should know. That is why I'm counting on you. Become that team of nobodies who change the galaxy, become that team who stands up for what's right and against all odds, and not knowing what you're doing, you manage to beat the impossible and wind up changing everything!"

Those at the table shared a look, their smiles and nods matching as they listened to Lando's words and agreed with their long overdo message.

> "We are in desperate need of reinforcements. You should know by now that the Emperor has returned, but what you may not know is that he's got an army of planet killers ready to be deployed from the Unknown Regions. We've already seen what they can do on the people of Kijimi, and we've lost so much over the years... Alderaan, Scarif, Jedha City, the Hosnian System! How much more can we afford to lose, waiting for somebody else to come and win our battles? We can't! It is up to every single one of us. If we don't come together and fight for what's ours then there wont be a place in this galaxy that remains safe from Palpatine's armada. And, look, I know it's scary, but use that fear and turn it into something the other guys can fear instead. We can do this together, I know we can. Attached are our coordinates. Meet us there and stand with us! Fight with us! ... Don't do it for me, for the Resistance, or anything else, but do it for yourselves! Do it before there's nothing left for us to fight for.

He paused, and the voice that came back wasn't so much a strong general, but that renown voice of charm that Calrissian was famous for.

> "Thanks for listening, and I hope to see all of your beautiful, familiar faces there." 

The transmission ended as Sabine pulled up the coordinates and read them out to the table. 

"That's all there is."

"When did they destroy Kijimi?" Jacen frowned. "On the way over? What did he mean by an armada of planet killers?"

"Like an battalion of Deathstars?" Zeb wondered, equally concerned as he and Kallus squeezed one another by the hand.

Hera shook her head, but a growing smile accompanied her as she stood and pressed her hands firmly into the table.

"Whatever it is, at least we know we won't be fighting them alone." She laughed once and shook her head a few more times, her lekku swaying softly from side to side as she did. "I never thought I'd say this! But thank you Lando Calrissian!"

"It's good to know the Resistance is still holding the line after all," Sabine said. "I'm passing this message along to all of my contacts and other Fulcrum agents across the galaxy. The Mandalorians, the Noghri, the Chiss... If Calrissian is going to spread the word then I'm going to take it another step further."

"How do you think they got these messages through anyway? How did they break off Palpatine's loop?" Kallus wondered.

"No clue! But does it matter?" Zeb replied. "Calrissian sure knows how to deliver a speech, doesn't he? I bet people all over the place are gearing up to go join him."

"You of all people should know the results that powerful impromptu speeches can have." He teased, a sharp clap following after as he stood and started shooing them all away from the table. "Well, what are you all still standing around here for? Go, answer Calrissian's call! You don't want to be one of the last ones there, do you? Go!"

They all stood and rushed for the door.

"Kallus is right," Hera said, the determination in her stare strengthened tenfold. "Let's load up everybody. We have a war to get to, and we don't want to be late."

* * *

##  _Shortly after,_ on the Chiss planet, Csaus:

“Uncle! Uh, I mean Master… um… I mean…” Cade swallowed to recomposed the words tripping around in his mouth. “Ezra. I don’t know if I can accept this?”

“Of course you can.” Ezra closed the boy’s hand around the hilt of the saber and squeezed it. “You’re going to need it, and since I can’t actually help you to build one of your own right now, I can think of nothing better than passing my old saber down to you. Use it, Cade. Use it and never forget all that you’ve learned about the Force.”

“O-Okay… I will!” He stammered, gripping the weapon with more ferocity. “B-but what are you going to fight with? You gave your other saber to Eryth, didn’t you? How are you going to—”

“Already taken care of.” He interrupted with a smirk. “Don’t worry about me. I don't plan on leaving the sky for this particular fight.”

“Well, alright…” He said hesitantly, masking the worry out of his voice for his old master’s sake. “Anyway, how goes the search in the other group?”

“Not good.” Ezra muttered. “All four are unable to accurately locate Palpatine’s location. Each time we get close to what we think might be the location of his base, we’re mentally attacked and forced to seek shelter within range of the Ysalamiri groves.”

“We’re running out of time. We need to figure out where the threat is and neutralize it before the Ascendancy and the whole rest of the galaxy gets destroyed.”

“I know!” He grumbled. “If only we had a sign… some way to get into communications with our allies. Maybe if we all pooled our information together we might just be able to—”

**_*BEEP-BEEP!*_ **

He was cut off suddenly by the sudden chirping of his comm. Both he and Cade shared an uneasy look, before Ezra ever so hesitantly lifted it closer to his mouth and switched it on with his thumb. To his relief, the channel was silent and he raised a brow before offering his response.

“Uh... Hello?”

“Ezra?”

Never had a voice sounded sweeter to his ears than it did coming from his wife's lips over a clear Sith-free comm-wave.

“Tharin!" He exclaimed, his voice visibly relieved as a smile spread from ear to ear. "What’s going on? How are the comms back online?”

“We’re not entirely sure, but they just cleared up a few moments ago. Once they had, a swell of messages began forming in inboxes and directories at the communications station. A few from out of the system seemed to be labeled towards you directly and we’ve already deciphered and forwarded them over to Thrawn and the Expansionary Defense Fleet.”

“Oh really?” He smirked. “I take it whatever there was for me were helpful then? Don’t tell me you got some sort of magic message revealing the secret hidden location of Palpatine’s base.”

“Magic, no.” She said, ignoring the mockery in his voice as two more blips hit his messenger-pad. “But one Lando Calrissian as well as our old friends, Hera and Sabine, all seem to have sent you coordinates for the battle to come." 

He blanched, both his and Cade’s mouths dropping wide open as they stared at his messenger in disbelief.

"They've already rendezvoused with the fleet, and it seems we’re all late to the fight, _ch'eo risbun'o ch'acah…”_

“Okay...” he started, snapping his fingers as he nodded to himself. “That's fair, I deserved that.”

“I'm glad you agree." She said with an amused hum. "Now if I were you, I would deploy the sqaudrons you’ve brought to Csaus so they can catch up to the other ozyly-esehembo and allies already on route."

"Right, I'm on it! So, where are we heading?" He asked. "Nowhere too deep into uncharted space, right? No black holes or Vagaari camps we need to avoid on our path I take it?

"It does not appear so, but that is up for the navigators to decide. It would appear these coordinates match only within our oldest texts as a dark world designated as Exogul. No information other than that is available as it is listed under off-limits territories the Chiss are to never approach. It's hazard levels are some of the highest I've ever seen documented, yet the reasons for such dangers are labeled only as a mystery.”

"A Sith world if I ever heard one..." he mumbled, a look of acceptance giving way to a fond smile of gratitude as he waved for Cade to start spreading the news to the Csaus teams. “Thank you, Tharin! I’ll call you once we’re out of the fight and heading home.”

“Alright..." she said softly, the worry audible through the comm. "I love you.”

 _“Ch'ah ch'acah vah,”_ he replied.

“May warrior’s fortune smile on your efforts...” she continued. “And may the Force be with you all.”

The line clicked off and Ezra clapped his hands together before rushing off to inform the other Chiss about the new turn of events. 

_It was about time they got lucky at something!_ He thought. _Hopefully that wouldn’t be the only good thing to happen to them today._

“Okay everyone, we just got some very lucky news!” Ezra called in Cheunh. “Into your ships! We’ve got to close the gap between us and the rest of the galaxy and help in this fight. Remember your formations and training! Stay with your squadrons and provide as much cover as you can to anything on our side. Let’s move out!”


	3. A Ghost and Spectres

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> War rages in the skies as fighters from all over the galaxy band together in a final fight to stop the Sith. As the Resistance tackles obstacles below, and the fight with Palpatine is seemingly up to the younger generation, a sudden turning point throws everyone into a standstill when a huge tree of lightning sprouts from the dark temple and disables all of the ships. Luckily, a few familiar voices are watching over the crew, ready to help them turn the tide and bring this reign of darkness to an end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Posted on: January 20, 2020

“Argh!” Hera grunted, straining all of her muscles against the _Ghost’s_ controls as she twisted them out of the way of another TIE fighter trio that suddenly appeared on their flank. “We’ve got more incoming! Two starboard, one port!”

“I’m on it!” Sabine called, lasers firing out in an upward line as the final three shots met with one of the enemy ships and sent it scattering into a fireball of debris. “Another one down!”

“Yeah, but twelve more closing in!” Zeb warned. “How did they get so many fighters out here?” 

“Forget the fighters!” She argued. “How did they get so many Star Destroyers!?”

“And don’t forget the planet killing weapons on board. Talk about compacting technology!”

“Focus on what you can!” Hera ordered. “Even if we have to do it piece by piece, we’ll cut through their defenses one ship at a time. Just find yourselves an opening!”

“Diverting power to the lower aft shields!” Jacen announced, his hands dancing rapidly across the dashboard for the familiar sequence patterns to get the job done. “Mom, go for the opening between those two wings! It’s all you!”

“I’m on it!” She gripped the steering hard and brought the Ghost into a tight spin. “Everybody hang on!”

The ship rocked as shots and explosions rang out all around them. The _Ghost_ was heading for the narrow gap between two Star Destroyer wings, just big enough for them to slip through at an angle, but one wrong move and they'd all be sliced into three severed parts! Thanks to Hera’s vortex, they managed to slip by without their goal being so obvious, and they managed to make it through the gap and out of the oncoming fleet, taking a few of the pursuing TIEs out in the process. It was a perfectly executed tunnel strategy, and everyone let out a very large breath of relief once it was behind them.

With so many ships there wasn’t a lot of room for formations to maneuver, and the TIEs all appeared to be sticking to their roots. That gave them numbers and security, sure, but it also made it hard to dodge turret fire and break off to avoid being shot or rammed into oncoming debris. 

Now, Hera could weave through pretty much anything, but even this much movement and uncertainty was hard to pilot through for the scattered lot of individuals who flew with their own patterns and goals in mind. There were so many people out here fighting and the allied forces didn’t have the luxury of trained formations to keep them all in their own flight lanes. Luckily, nobody was outright crashing into each other, but the ones at the controls couldn’t afford to take their eyes off the sky for a second unless they wanted to be consumed by the chaos.

“It looks like they landed a carrier on the outer hull of that Star Destroyer.” Jacen informed. “Foot soldiers are attacking directly on— what are those things? It looks like some kind of riding animal?” 

“Is that good?” Zeb wondered.

“It’s something?” Hera replied with a shrug. “Watch out!”

She dove out of the way of falling debris as electricity spiraled down below on the dark temple, a storm forming on the ground as black clouds coated the sky to mirror the activity of the strange earth.

“What's going on down there?” Jacen muttered, a sickly dark feeling filling up his entire being as he groaned and shook it out of his mind.

“Jacen, I need more power up here!” Sabine hollered. 

“I'm on it! Increasing flow strength to the dorsal turret!”

“Brace yourselves!”

 **_*BAM!*_ **

Jacen was knocked forward by turbulence just as he was reaching for the distributor buttons and slammed his hands into the control panel, trying hard not to bash his head into it at the same time, but still managing to knock a few levers against the side of his face.

“I wish we had some more backup!” Sabine yelled from behind.

His ears were ringing from the sudden impact, but Jacen steadied himself quickly and tilted his gaze skyward as he pushed himself back into his seat. Just as he did however, something caught his gaze above a he saw something white streaking out of the jet black clouds. He squinted, trying to focus on it and wondering if it were some kind of missile or shooting star, until suddenly an entire shower of the white streaks burst through the atmosphere, turning the dark sky into a ship-made sea of shining metal stars. 

The new pilots entered the battle in a blink, and were down on their location weaving all around the battlefield as bright blue laser fire started slicing through enemy ships left and right. The ships were a model very familiar to him... a swarm of white Tie Fighters, only their designs were neatly pulled into a teardrop shape near the front, as well as all of them housing obvious alien aerodynamics which made them quicker than the average fighter. This became more obvious as multiple hordes of them streaked by in sudden flashes of white, the remainder of the ships quickly realizing these speedy new additions were on their side in this battle.

"Wow!" Jacen breathed, taking it all in as he reached for the comms. "Hey Sabine! A fleet of shooting stars just showed up to answer your wish."

"What do you mean?"

“It’s the Chiss Clawcrafts!” Hera called, her voice barely able to contain the laughter she wanted to bellow out. “It looks like Ezra got our messages after all!” 

“Way to go Ez!”

Among the endless noises of laser fire and ships tearing apart, a single chime rang out through the _Ghost’s_ speakers and the voice to follow brought a warm smile to every face aboard the freighter.

“Greetings _Ghost,_ this is Specter Six reporting in with assistance from the Chiss Ascendancy.” Ezra called, his voice sweet relief as more and more members of the allied fleet began to notice the Nssis-class Clawcraft that had come to their aid. “Sorry we’re late guys!”

“Ezra!” Zeb breathed, smiling and shaking his head as he shot a coy glare out the viewport. “You're just in time, mate!"

"Now who said you could start all the fun without me?”

“We wouldn’t have to if you weren’t always fashionably late!” Sabine teased back.

“Glad to have the whole family back together again!” Hera’s stern voice interrupted, though there was a soft, nostalgic tone to it as she smiled and cracked a small joke of her own. “So, are you coming aboard to make it official?”

“Maybe later?” He chuckled. “I’m sticking with the Chiss fleet, but we’ll be right on your tail.”

“You heard the man!” she called. “Let’s keep cutting our way through! Looks like we’ve got another wave heading our way. More TIEs incoming!”

* * *

“Sector Two-B is clear! Squadrons Blue-Seven and Eight converging into Sector Three now.”

“Keep up the good work, Eryth.” Ezra responded, grunting from the buffet of a new TIE before blasting down the wing of another. “Cade, what’s your status?”

“Finishing up in Sector Six, what’s the matter, getting tired, Master?”

“Don’t get cocky...” Ezra warned, a smile on his face despite his tone. "We’ve got to cover the foot soldiers on that Star Destroyer. Since when do they make Red Stormtroopers?”

“Right?!”

The familiar man’s voice shocked the old pilot a moment, as he focused in on the speaker and tried to remember why he sounded so familiar.

“Back in my day there were only white troopers, period! Well... maybe a few black suits if you were really working for an edgy look? Or if you were a gunner, of course?”

“Gunther?” Ezra almost laughed. “Gunther Kordin, is that you?”

“Sure is!”

“You didn’t think we’d miss another fight for the fate of the galaxy, did you?” Koree added.

“But how did you two—”

“Pyrondi called us, and we still remembered the comm channels." She explained. "You know, you should probably change yours after thirty years, Bridger..."

"Woo!" Gunther cried out, two black shuttles zipping past him with Juntaran logos painted in silver along the empennage. "Sucks that Palpatine is the one who gets to come back from the dead, but I'll admit, this is more fun that I’ve had in ages!”

"Definitely since we left the Ascendancy!"

“Yeah, fun…” Ezra rolled his eyes. “Either way, I’m happy to see you two again. Now let’s show these guys what humans trained among the Chiss can really do.”

“Hell yeah!”

“You just try to keep up, Bridger. We may be old, but ex-Imperial gunners still have an aim that can’t be rivaled!”

“We’ll see about that!”

They shot forward, and disappeared among the fleet, a massive army of people who had come together to fight for their freedom against tyranny. It was amazing how many had rallied once they heard Lando’s message, and it was even more amazing how well they were holding the line against this "Final Order".

Ezra could sense the power battle going on in the temple below. Ever since breaking orbit on this Sith planet, he’d felt it more strongly than any cold chill or breathless nightmare he’d had in year's past. The dark pressure below was rivaling that of Abeloth’s touch in his mind all those years before within the Yuuzhan Vong Worldship, and the sensations ground knots into his stomach and clouded his mind in feelings of fear and pain. He did his best to suppress all of that and stay focused skyward, but as that battle below progressed, he found it harder and harder to divert his attention. Still, they needed him in the air more than they did below, and as much as he’d like to go down there and lend his aid, Ezra worried that Ahsoka's premonition and warning would play out against them. Not only that, but without his sabers he realized he would probably just wind up getting in the way anyway. 

Not only that, but the sheer strength of the people down there was sending a more positive connection through the Force than any he'd felt before. A tightly wrapped braid between all forces as some major bloodlines and years of history were obviously being tested down below. Balance... just as Ahsoka said. Two in such perfect balance that a single additional warrior in the temple would tip the scales, and not in a good way if Ahsoka's warning was anything to go by. No... That was not his fight… but this… this was something he could do at least, and he would make sure those two got the time and cavalry they truly needed in order to stop Palpatine and win their battle. 

_Still…_ He wondered if that was the right move. Kanan had always told him that it took more strength not to fight, but this was Palpatine they were facing down there, and those two kids could be in way over their heads. 

“I’ll know what to do when the time comes...” Ezra told himself.

“ _Ticsi,_ watch your six!” Eryth called suddenly.

His eyes darted back to the sky as he rolled out of the way of an oncoming attack, the shots scraping against his wings as he sent two bolts right back into their viewport window, and the enemy shattered, exploding before flaking off into the sky. Ezra let out a deep breath afterwards to steady his mind and his nerves.

“Thanks for watching my back!”

“Do you sense the turmoil below too?” she asked. “We’re all struggling to avoid it, but it’s like whatever’s down there is drawing us in.”

"Should we try to land below with a few squadrons and infiltrate the temple?" Cade wondered. 

“I know it's distracting, but keep strong everyone. This is where we’re needed the most right now. The TIEs are focusing their fire on our ships more so than any of the others. It's our job to antagonize them and draw their fire away in order to help the allied fleet. We're faster, with better weapons, and are much easier to target in these black clouds, so let's use that to our advantages and make sure everyone up here stays in one piece.”

“Copy that.” A few of the Chiss replied.

"Understood." A few others added.

He swapped to a personal channel and let out a heavy sigh before speaking into it.

"Cade, I know what you're thinking, but that's not our fight. Trust in the Force and stay focused on this sky fight."

His voice came back on the line sounding deeply concerned. "But, wouldn't our numbers help out if it was really a suicide mission?"

Ezra bit his lip. _How else could he put this?_

"Sith temples are not like any ordinary terrain we've trained on, Cade. They're dangerous, filled with dark energy, deceitful temptations, and ghosts from the past who will stop at nothing to get what they want. Palpatine is down there, and believe me when I say that I do not want to risk your lives trying to face him." He swallowed and let out a stressful chuckle. "My crew and I once faced the apprentice of Palpatine back on Lothal. We dropped a couple of AT-STs right on top of him, but he wasn't even fazed. I asked my master then, "if that doesn't kill him what will?" and he simply told me "not us." We barely made it out with our lives that day, and I despite how capable I know all of you are, I also know that whoever is down there facing the emperor is also facing their destiny. If anyone is going to kill him, I don't think it will be us, and Ahsoka has sensed much the same. Should any of us disrupt the balance of the battle below, we will surely break the fate we want to happen."

"Their destiny, huh? Just as it's my destiny to defeat Krayt..." he said, unhappy about it, but understanding his orders to a small enough degree to obey his orders. "Alright Master, I understand. Let's hope then that this fate will truly happen without us down there to help. I don't like it, but I trust you, I trust Master Tano, and I trust in the Force."

"Good man." Ezra smiled. "You've grown since we first started training. I'm proud of you."

"Yeah yeah..." Cade said, a bit of his impetuous wit seeping in as he no doubt rolled his eyes. "I guess I've just been raised right?"

Ezra let out another grin, until the sudden rapid beeping of his comms sang out a warning through his ship.

"Look there!" Eryth exclaimed suddenly, her voice overlapping from the other channel. She sounded alarmed but also triumphant as she added. "We've got incoming ships at point 03201."

They looked up and saw the two Chiss warships and one large patrol frigate appear from through the clouds, laying down fire on a few of the unsuspecting Star Destroyers as they swiftly entered the battle.

Ezra smiled and instantly reached back to open his transmissions to the public setting.

"Thrawn, is that you?"

His cool and collected voice replied through the speakers as an entire destroyer fell from the sky successfully shot down.

"After reviewing the enemy, those in the Ascendancy felt you and the ozyly-esehembo could use a bit more assistance with this battle."

"Much appreciated, old friend."

"We're also here to give a long overdue example to Emperor Palpatine at just how formidable the Chiss can truly be. Perhaps even have him come to regret turning his back on our people's efforts during the previous war."

Ezra laughed a bit to himself. _Was that a bit of spite he detected from the old Chiss admiral?_

Still, the addition of the military fleet may just be the leverage they needed to turn the tides on this sky fight. Despite the explosions and hostiles coming at them from every angle, the fleet itself appeared to be waiting for a command to move that wasn't coming. Not only that, but their enemies firing down on them went from ridiculously overwhelming number to just horribly outnumbered, so that was a plus, in it's own way.

 _They might just be able to pull this off after all?_ He thought.

“Eryth, look out!”

Ezra watched as a group of gunners ganged up on his daughter’s squadron, the three girls breaking out of formation as the two on the ends circled around for better shots, Eryth drawing their fire by acting as a decoy in the center lines. She zipped a pattern to avoid stray shots, a few blasts bouncing off of her wings as she grunted on the speakers and finally decided to let out her rear turret sling, the small gun hidden just beneath the cockpit. It did fast work as the disk-shaped rays of energy sliced out at her pursuers. 

The weapon was effective, but it’s unstable targeting made it hard to use, the flat bolts spreading out before converging in on a single target. The wind-speed didn’t do much to help that difficult aim, but in the end she was able to strike the center TIE and it exploded into ribbons as soon as the final detonator met its point.

With that distraction, her wingmen came back into range to make fast work of the final two.

Ezra let out a breath, before a sudden danger reflex spiked through the back of his head.

“Incoming!”

**_*FWAM!*_ **

He rocketed forward, turning his head to the sudden five TIEs on his tail, surrounding him in an ominous line of threat as the people on the end rushed forward, trapping him in a tight box, a final man knocking him down in altitude as somebody slammed into his upper viewport and cracked the glass. 

He growled and dipped into a hard dive, attempting to whip out of the trap and behind the back wall of enemies, but they expected that much and followed his movements. He couldn’t shake them, veering left and right, through debris, but it was as if they had trained their sights on him alone and wouldn’t let up their ground.

**_*WHACK!*_ **

Another slam, this time from the side and it sent him into a spin. Ezra steadied himself and shook his head again, his finger reaching for his back turrets now before deliberately twisting himself harder to the side, sending him into a roll as the rings of his ship causing the flow of disk blasts to create a vortex of landmines, completely engulfing three of his five attackers and swallowing them whole.

The remaining pilots didn’t seem to care for his response and they let loose a volley of fire on his as soon as he straightened his ship.

**_*PEW! PEW! PEW! PEW! PEW*!_ **

He was rocked from behind, the blaster bolts slicing quickly through his shields and into the wings of his ship before he could move for cover. There were too many ships, too little airspace to make another quick getaway. He felt the vibrations stinging through his chair, and fire formed around his viewport. They’d gotten his engine! In an instant Ezra realized what was about to happen... He was being shot down, and there was only one thing left to do.

He clicked open the panel on his dashboard and reached inside for the adhesive strips in the med kit before taping them down on the blaster buttons of his yoke. The turrets fired rapidly, giving him enough time to reach for the small metal disk and slip it into the slot on his controls... the Chiss soldier’s final way out, the bomb that would keep any non-organic matter out of enemy hands. As he readied himself to evacuate, the remaining TIEs were likewise unable to avoid the never-ending fire and exploded behind him. Ezra watched them with a fraction of relief before the oncoming dread brought him back to the present.

"Master!"

"Ezra!"

The metal alloys of the Clawcraft were already destabilizing from the bomb and his comms rang out a frantic mob of static as he made out a few voices screaming his name.

_Time to go._

He pressed to open the viewport, quickly pushing the force of the fire away from him just as he had all those years ago on the Chimera… just as Kanan had done all those years ago on the fuel station. He took in a deep breath, feeling the hard air pinning him back to his seat as he closed his eyes and concentrated on his evac plans. When all the sound had faded around him, he knew it. This was the moment he had been waiting for… and he leapt through the fire.

**_*BOOM!*_ **

The Clawcraft faded away into nothing, the Inrokini bomb doing its work before the explosion had time to fully encompass his engine. He had beat the flames, and he had even beat the TIEs, but now it was just him exposed to the open air and miles upon miles of war zone-ridden skies, and all he could do was fall.

* * *

**_*BOOM!*_ **

“NOOO!" Eryth cried out, eyes wide with horror as she watched her father’s ship vanish from the sky in a cloud of smoke. 

She hadn't felt him die… that was something she knew she should be able to do, especially since connection was a more prominent ability in her and her father's unique prowess with the Force. Meanwhile, her eyes scanned the sky but there was no sign of him. There was so much going on, so much movement and chaos.She wondered if _she was just not seeing him, or perhaps he had been carried off by another ship?_ She was in no position to turn her craft around and look for him, not with the space she had nor the time it would take to spot and save him. She made quick work of the next TIE blocking her path, her eyes still turning to search the sky for her father to no avail as her ship drifted further and further away. She had never felt so completely hopeless as ten of the longest seconds of her life flashed before her eyes and she gripped the lightsaber at her side, fervently recalling all of her fathers old tales of heroism or epic escapes. _There were so many of them, surely this was nothing compared to those?_

_He had to be okay… he just had to be... just calm your mind, Eryth, and try to focus on his presence. Where is he?_

At that same time, gasps and cries from the other Chiss pilots started echoing her horror moments later as the Chiss pilots, Cade, and everyone near with their channel suddenly realized what had just happened.

Thrawn heard the ozzly-esehembo’s panicked responses on the channel and looked up in time to see the distant fireball that he assumed was Bridger’s ship, the flames swallowing into themselves as the Inrokini bomb dissolved it of all evidence and technology, leaving behind only a faint trace of smoke before that too wafted away into the dreary air.

He could only watch that area as a sensation of dread struck him, a cold chill dashing up his spine as he watched Ezra Bridger supposedly disappear from their lives. The pain that could be heard in Eryth’s voice was heartbreaking, the sounds Tharin, would make haunting the back of his mind.

He shut his eyes for a long moment and took in a breath.

 _No… it would take far more than that to be the end of Ezra Bridger,_ Thrawn thought. _He should know this fact better than anyone._

With that in mind, Thrawn swallowed his reservations and ordered another barrage down on the nearest Star Destroyer. Fatal or no, Ezra's apparent sacrifice had just given him an idea.

"Lieutenant!" He called.

 _"Mar ren'musi?"_ She replied in Cheunh.

"Have our technicians focus on sending out an electromagnetic wave from the ship's reserve power." He reached into his pocket and held out the small rectangular chip, something that caught almost everyone's attentions on the bridge. 

"Will we be evacuating the cruiser, sir?" She asked, eyeing the bomb in his hands questioningly.

"On the contrary," Thrawn replied. "We are about the replicate and amplify this signal against the enemy. I will oversee this project. You have command of the bridge until my return, is that understood?"

Had she not been trained to reserve her expression, the Lieutenant might have looked shocked. Instead she merely bowed and instantly began giving orders to her team as Thrawn hurried away and disappeared down the hall.

* * *

_***BOOM!*** _

“EZRA!”

Simultaneously, his friends on the _Ghost_ heard the explosion on Ezra’s feed burst through the speakers of their freighter in chilling static. They could only watch as his ship imploded some distance above them, the smoke eating at the debris before a scrap could rain down on their position. They all had tears in their eyes, and like everyone else on their radio, they screamed out his name, his family, friends, and students alike only able to watch every micro-fragment of his shuttle disintegrate into nothing.

_“WAH BUH BER WAH! BAH! BAH WER WAH!”_

It was Chopper who saw the blip, turning on a dime and hurrying down to the cargo hold as fast as his retractable wheel could roll.

“Chopper!?” Hera called, blinking back tears in her eyes. “Where are you going?”

He quickly linked in and opened the rear hatch doors without much warning as Jacen and Hera watched the sensors in the cockpit go ballistic.

“What is he doing!?”

“Mom!” Jacen exclaimed, a wide smile spreading as he pointed repeatedly out the viewport. “Look! Look there!”

She narrowed her eyes, able to look away from her path for a microsecond as she watched something small trailing smoke as it fell through the sky.

“Is that—”

“It’s Ezra! He’s alive!”

Sabine and Zeb instantly rose up at the words, searching frantically out the viewports for their friend.

Chopper buzzed the command, but Hera was already in motion.

“Good work, Chop! I'm going to line us up to catch him! Everybody brace yourselves for evasive maneuvers!”

As Ezra soared downwards, harsh wind cut through his skin and eyes. He coughed and rubbed at his face with his sleeve. The air up here reeked of ship exhaust and explosive death, but he managed to steady himself and get a good look at his surroundings for the first time after the first hundred or so feet. This wasn't the first time he'd fallen through the sky, but at the same time, this was probably the highest up and also the busiest dive in terms of obstacles that he'd ever done a free-fall towards.

 _Now,_ he thought to himself. _How to get out of this one in one piece?_

He debated his options. Catching onto a passing ship at this velocity would probably dislocate his arm as the very least, but if he could get into a TIE, at least he'd have a few moments to shoot down unsuspecting ships before they caught on that he was a compromised vessel. He could even try his best to dodge everything and land near the temple, though... he would need to find a way back into the air soon, or else he might cross paths with Palpatine, and then everything would be sent on a dark timeline according to Ahsoka's visions.

Just before a third scenario had time to play out in his mind, Ezra saw the _Ghost_ miles below, lining up along his decent. It wasn’t the first time he’d been saved in this position, and the mere familiar sight of it wrapped him in those memories like a warm hug, a warm but dangerous and terrifying hug. It was better than any plan he could come up with, and he was grateful in that moment that he had such great friends looking out for him.

_The Force worked in mysterious ways… and obviously that meant getting back to his roots and becoming a full-fledged member of the Ghost crew again._

He smiled at the thought, and lined himself up with the open cargo bay.

_Thanks guys._

He moved his arms in closer and dove quickly down towards the ship, readying his hand for the impacting landing, and at the last moment, he gave off one large push that cushioned his fall. He skid into the bay on his heels, a final roll slowing his decent long enough to hurdle a crate and then trip into the back wall with a slight **_SLAM_ **as he reached up to the controls and mashed the hatch doors closed. Hera leveled out as soon as she saw the signal, and Ezra slid his back down to the floor before breathing heavily and letting his head fall tiredly against the cool, hard wall.

Chopper rolled over seconds after, relieved binary and scornful scolding flying by as the old Jedi let out a soft laugh and Ezra ran a hand across his top. 

“I know, I know… Thanks for the save buddy. It’s good to see you too.”

_"BUH WAH BER BAH WAH BER..."_

He let out a grin and one final breath before lifting his comm to his mouth.

“I-I’m in. I’m okay… I’m okay.”

A swarm of relieved voices overlapped before the ships once again parted to battle. 

Eryth and Cade both let out a steady breath to ease their nerves, Thrawn merely nodding knowingly towards the comms, as some of Ezra's students cheered the fact their teacher hadn’t just been blown out of the sky.

With a grunt, Ezra used the wall to get back to his feet, his old bones aching in a way that made him really wish this battle were taking place a few decades before. His back was almost entirely locked up, but he waited there a moment with Chopper as he waited for the feeling to fade.

He chuckled to himself, patting Chopper again as the old orange astromech helped him keep upright, making a very trite comment about Ezra’s spine.

“Yeah, me too… by the way, while I’m down here, I like the new decal,” he chuckled, noticing the dark red number three in new paint on the side of Chopper’s leg. “Sabine give you that before you all left?”

He buzzed in response, informing Ezra that she’d given everybody their new number decals in order to commemorate their reunited team to the Ghost.

“You don’t say?”

He chuckled and reached into his belt, pulling the orange pen from within that had cracked on impact with his rough landing, he could feel the ink spilling down his pouch and pants pocket, but he reached to his chest and drew himself a little “6” before casting the thing aside.

"Now it's official." He said with a grin, finally gathering the last of his breath before forcing his spine to unlock and go back to a full stance. “Alright…” he groaned and something inside of him snapped. “Oh, yeah… I think I’m good. Time to go thank Hera. Let’s hurry to the front.”

**_*SWOOSH!*_ **

The doors opened as Ezra wandered in and hurried to the front, his arms grasping at the backs of the two front seats as Hera swerved out of the way of more oncoming fire.

“Ezra!” Jacen smiled, almost tempted to turn around and give him a hug, but thinking better of it as they were still in a pretty heated battle.

“Nice of you to drop in,” Hera said, a smile forming despite the hard focused tone of her voice.

“Yeah?” He rubbed at his hairline nervously and shrugged. “Looks like you got your wish Hera, here I am.”

She hummed, smiling despite the distraction of the battle ahead. 

“It’s good to have you back on board, Ezra. Wish it wasn’t a reunion under heavy fire, but—”

“When is it not?” He chuckled, pointing down to the empty seat below. “I’ve got the nose gun?”

“It’s all yours,” she smiled.

He took a step towards it before he frowned, a split second sensation suddenly sending cold chills running like ice water through every one of his veins. Jacen copied the movement shortly after, the sounds of startled breaths and gasps coming through the comms as something dark and heavy quickly filled the air.

“Get your hands off the controls! Now!” Ezra shouted. 

Just as they did, a massive tree of lightning sprung from the temple below and into the sky, zapping each ship with energy and completely frying all the tech on-board.

Hera gasped and turned to see Ezra whisk Chopper back towards him, the metal droid narrowly missing getting zapped alongside the rest of their tech. Clank lowered his elevation slightly as electricity even managed to bleed from the roof, the walls and floors all giving off random discharges anywhere the metal was overly exposed.

“What the heck just happened?”

Sabine came into the cockpit a moment later, followed by Zeb who was shaking his hands after both had nearly been electrocuted by the sudden surge of power. They had heard Ezra’s warning, their faces visibly glad he was safe and there with him, but Sabine’s scrunched slowly into a look of aggravation as she squared up and punched him right in the shoulder.

“OW!?”

“You almost gave me a heart attack, Bridger!” She screamed, before she yanked him down and hugged him around the neck. “But it’s good to have you back.”

“Good to be back,” he grunted sorely. “Mostly…”

“Thanks for the warning,” Zeb added, giving the two a soft shove, which coming from the Lasat, still managed to knock both of them over a step. “One more second and Sabine and I might’ve been melded to the gunner controls. It’s good to see you again.”

“You too.”

Their small moment of nostalgia was much overdo, but it was short lived as everyone settled into their seats and Jacen's voice called back to them from the co-pilot's chair.

“All of our systems are fried. Stabilizers, engines, shields, weapons, all gone.”

"Looks like our outer hull will hold back most of the shock?" Hera noted, mentally thanking herself that the glass of their viewport had been fitted to withstand electric storms back during their Rebel days.

“What is that?”

“It’s Palpatine.” Ezra frowned, the whole crew staring studiously down at the darkness as their ships floated dead in the air. 

They all looked out the viewport at the strange branches of lightning curling across every inch of the black sky, only able to witness the battlefield before them as every single ship was stuck floating helplessly, everyone else in the new fleet trapped in the same position that they were, though not all of them were so lucky as to be resistant to such powerful electric charges like the _Ghost_.

“It looks like some of the emergency power managed to get over to life support before we lost everything.” Hera called, hissing a bit as she timed her presses on the electrified control panel to examine the meters. "We should be safe for a little while at least, but we'll need to come up with a plan to break these charges soon or— well—"

Jacen finished her statement for her.

"Or things in here are going to get a bit more electrifying, if you catch my drift?"

“Isn’t there anything we can do?”

“Can we get down there?”

“Not like this,” Ezra frowned. “There’s someone else down there, others fighting Palpatine… I can feel them... they’re—” His eyes widened a little. “I think they might be in trouble." He growled under his breath. "I should be down there with them! Ahsoka said if I got involved though, that we'd lose the battle. There has to be something I can do to help!”

"Ezra, you can't possibly put all of this on yoursel—"

As they all conversed, the sounds around Jacen's ears faded away and he felt a very familiar, very chilling whisper in his ear.

_"~~~"_

"What?" Jacen turned, only to see Sabine, Zeb, and Ezra staring back. "Did one of you just say something to me?"

They frowned at him, their eyes concerned.

"No?"

"What's wrong Jacen?"

_"Be with me..."_

Ezra craned his neck towards the sound as he and Jacen searched the ship.

"You guys don't hear that?"

"Hear what, honey?"

"I hear it," Ezra nodded. "I hear it, I feel it... This connection is like nothing I've ever sensed before."

_"~~~"_

Jacen groaned and reached for his head, the sound ringing like static in his ears as his mind throbbed with the growing headache of something attempting to tap into his mind.

"I can't tell what—" He grunted. "What is it saying?"

 _"Be with me..."_ She repeated, and Ezra felt a floodgate opening as he and Jacen looked up towards the ceiling.

“It's—" He stammered. "It's Jedi? They’re with us. All of them. They’re with us! I can hear them...”

“I feel them... I can't hear them, but I feel them... There are so many..."

“What does that mean?” Zeb asked, brows low.

"Open yourself up, Jacen. Let them flow through you."

"Okay..." He muttered uncertainly. "I guess I'll try?"

Ezra smiled.

"Do or do not, there is no try."

He shot him a look, but did as he was told, calming his mind as the cool swirling sensations of positive energy cut through the darkness that had been making him feel sick. He could feel the connection running trhough him, no longer just skimming around where he was, and he heard the voice below as clearly as if she were standing right next to him in the ship.

 _"Be with me..."_

Suddenly the sounds all stopped, and Jacen felt a touch against his shoulder as his mind cleared. It was just there for a moment, a brief flicker of a presence at his back, and when he looked, he saw something actually there and his eyes shot wide. At the same time, Hera let out a sharp breath, her hand shooting instinctually to her own shoulder as she turned around in her chair, her eyes knowing exactly where to look. Sabine gasped and smacked Zeb hard in the arm with the back of her hand as he merely stared, mouth open as he forgot how to breathe. Ezra had his eyes shut, focusing on the many voices surrounding them in the Force, that is until he sensed the presence and looked up with calm, knowing eyes to face what he felt. 

“Kanan…” Hera breathed silently, her hand coming up to her mouth as tears welled down the side of her face, a smile unable to stay hidden beneath her hand as she watched him remove his hand and smile down at her with a soft, gentle expression that spoke a million words directly to her and nobody else. He ran a hand down her cheek and she laughed, muffling out the tears she felt Kanan attempting to brush away. She rubbed her own eyes, wanting to feel his touch, and hoping that he could at least feel hers as she placed her hand on top of his and let her shinning green eyes break from Kanan long enough to look at Jacen.

He followed her gaze and saw the man sitting in the co-pilot's seat, a mirror image of himself with green hair and strong Twi'lek features visible in his face.

“D-dad?” He mouthed, his shock enough to pale his skin and make the light patches of green blush more prominently as his teal eyes shook upon seeing themselves mirrored in the specter's own face.

Kanan’s look towards him was even softer, his brows squinting as if to show both pride at what his son had grown into, and also apology for never being around to watch it happen. His hand came up to rest on his cheek and Jacen felt an instant swell of safety and love that he'd wondered about for most of his life. It wasn't exactly how he pictured it, but this was precisely how he always dreamed it might feel to meet his dad, and he felt his eyes welling up with tears as his mother reached over and squeezed his hand.

The silent apparition stood before them all, his warm eyes looking around the _Ghost_ with a sense of familiar longing as he removed his hand from Jacen and Hera and took a few steps back towards the others.

Chopper stood there motionless, Clank hovering above as both wondered if there was something wrong with their optical units. Kanan slid his fingers across the top of the droid's head, walking past both as he made his way down the row, Chopper's soft movements his only response as shock had utterly captured the old astromech.

Zeb could only stare in wonder and wonder if he was really there. He nodded to him uncertainly, before Kanan’s hand came up to Zeb’s shoulder, and a stern grateful nod answered him in reply. Zeb had half considered he would be afraid to feel the ghost’s touch on his skin, but considering who this phantom was and just how much he’d missed him, the only thing the Lasat felt was pure unbridled joy, a warmth filling up his heart as happy tears started to leak from the corners of his eyes.

Sabine stood up from her seat, her hands shaking as they lifted slowly to her chest, wondering is she could reach out and touch him, or if this was something so fragile and precious that a single wrong movement might instead break this dream they were all sharing and cause Kanan to disappear. 

Kanan only smiled at her, almost looking like he had let out a chuckle, but his hand came up to her chin and tilted it an inch upward with one hooked finger, as he let out an understanding nod. Sabine sobbed out a laugh as she chuckled and tilted her head to the side, happy to see his face once more after so many years. He hadn't changed a single day from before the mission to Malachor. His hair, his beard, his scars, all reverted back into the young man he was before becoming blinded. The way he looked to her was younger than even Jacen was, and she wondered if he was shocked to see everyone on the Ghost looking so old and wrinkled, or if he'd been there watching over them the whole time already used to how much they'd all changed. 

Finally Kanan met eyes with Ezra and the two shared a soft, knowing smile.

"I take it this was the right thing to do?" He joked, his voice soft as he saw his old master shooting him a snarky glare and a nod.

After that, Kanan frowned, his eyes looking to the ground and far past it as his focus grew more clear on the temple below. He had to go now, Ezra understood that, and a tear rolled down his cheek as he watched Kanan close his eyes, his face at peace as he took one last look back at his family, and then faded away.

There was a loud scream below, one that none but Ezra could hear, and in a great flash of light, everything stopped. The lightning had subsided and all functions in the _Ghost_ started rapidly beeping back to life as ships all around them began to come to and straighten their formations.

Chopper snapped out of his daze and was the first to break the silence that had engulfed the entire cockpit.

 _“WAH BUH WER…”_ he alerted softly, his low volume, barely heard past the many ringing alarms and warning sirens.

Hera blinked, once, twice, and then more rapidly as she shook her head and remembered to take a breath. 

“The ship’s coming back online!” she called, her voice fading back to her as she turned her chair towards the action and gripped the controls of her yoke with such ferocity that her gloves made a grinding sound against them. "Everyone get ready to move!"

“On it!" Jacen called, wiping his eyes with the back of his arm, his smile stuck permanently to his face as he slammed his hands down on the dashboard. "Rerouting emergency power back to the engines and turrets. Mom—”

“I’m ready!” She said, shaking the last of her shock away. “Okay kids, get ready to come back online in three… two… one… NOW!”

They shot off in a blink, one of the first ships to move again after being released from the branches of lightning. The TIEs were all quick to take notice, and they were back on their sights not moments later.

“Ezra, Sabine, Zeb, you three get back on the guns!”

“On it!”

“Yeah!”

“Already gone!”

“Chopper, Clank! What’s our status?”

The droids revealed the damages, nothing too major, and Hera and Jacen shared a very meaningful look and a firm nod to follow.

“I don’t know what he did, but I think Kanan just saved us.”

“He’s always doing that,” Jacen smirked.

Hera returned the look.

“Wait a second everybody!" Ezra called out from the gunner seat below. "The temple is falling!”

“The Star Destroyers are plummeting too…” Sabine added from the dorsal seat.

"What's left of the TIEs seem to be inoperable too," Zeb also added, his voice coming all the way back from the Phantom.

"The whole army is just... dying?"

The skies started to clear, a great weight lifted from the air as everyone watched their enemies crashing around them. Hera pulled up to avoid the debris, all other friendly ships seemingly doing so as well as they reconnected above the carnage.

“Is it— Uh... is it over?” Zeb asked.

"It's almost like the ships were connected to the temple directly?"

"I've heard such a thing with droids," Hera said with a look of skepticism. "Not for entire starfleets though."

Cheers erupted suddenly from the comms, followed shortly after by a very familiar, cool and collected voice. 

“Come in, Ezra…”

He reached to his comm and pressed for it with his thumb.

“I hear you. Go ahead, Thrawn.”

“The Chiss have emitted a strong EMP wave targeting the specific targeting computers of the Star Destroyers. Using our Inrokini bombs, I was able to convert the effects to have a similar effect to the technology as more of an airborne attack that disabled their engines. After the hold on our cruiser had lifted, we acted swiftly in order to take down the remainder of the Final Order and their fleet."

"That explains it." He almost rolled his eyes, but smiled nonetheless. As always, it was all so clear when Thrawn explained it, and like always it sucked all the mystery and wonder out with it as soon as Ezra realized yet again that this was merely the working of Chiss ingenuity and science. He chuckled. "With ideas like that, you're going to give Tharin a run for her money."

"No..." he seemed amused by the thought. "If I know my niece, she would have perfected it far faster and cleaner than I."

Ezra laughed.

"You'll have to tell her when we get back."

"Right. Well, it would appear the threat has been eliminated, so the Expansionary Defense Fleet is prepared to make our leave. We will escort the ozyly-esehembo back home at your command.”

“Aw, come on, you don’t want to stay for the party, Grand Admiral?” Gunther’s voice interrupted in a much poorer connection.

“We missed the one after Endor,” Koree added. “Come on, it’ll be fun."

"How do you two keep getting this channel?" Ezra exclaimed, though not unpleasantly. He was glad they were both still alive, and despite his frustrations, it showed in his voice.

The Chiss only chuckled at the interruption before making his reply.

“Perhaps another time? We have a very lengthy report to deliver back to the Ascendancy, and it has been a long day.”

“I hear you.” Ezra chuckled. “Go ahead. I’ll get a ride here and be back soon.”

“I’ll stay too!” Eryth sounded. "You can ride back with me, _Ticsi._ " 

“I'll stick around a bit too!” Cade agreed. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen you guys, Uncle Gunther, Aunt Koree!”

“You too Slugger,” Gunther called. “We’ll regroup with the rest of the fleet, their sending over coordinates now.”

“See you there.”

"Tell _Tin'mi_ we'll be back to the Ascendancy soon, _G'en'vti!"_

Thrawn hummed over the comms.

"Try not to be too long. She is as impatient as her father, _batahn nazen_. We don't want her to wonder where you are for too long."

"I understand. We'll be brief then."

He sounded amused by that.

"Farewell."

Their lines buzzed off one at a time as Ezra watched the Chiss fleet and the Clawcrafts zip away in the opposite direction and disappear into lightspeed. He smiled, knowing they were all safe and returning home, and his smile only widened when he saw Cade and Eryth’s ships form up on each side of the _Ghost._ A sole X-Wing was the last to exit the smoke, reconnecting with the fleet as they made their parade march through the clearing skies. With that, each of the allied forces shot off into space, the last of the burning debris crumbling to the ground on Exogul as everyone flew back to their homes and families.

* * *

"We did it!"

Cheers were calling out from every person on the ground as the mass of ships converged and people began running towards one another in celebration.

Hera and Ezra hugged, her attention then going to Jacen, before Zeb, then Sabine, Chopper, and so on... everyone clamoring over the other to hold their friends closer with the sweet sensation of relief that came from winning an unwinnable war. They were off the ship and into the crowds in moments.

_"Ticsi!"_

"Eryth!" 

They slammed together in a hug, Ezra kissing her head as he crushed her as close to his chest as he could.

"Okay!" She grunted. "Need to breathe, _Ticsi!"_ She shoved him off of her with a laugh just in time for Cade to literally lunge himself onto Ezra's back.

"You really freaked us out back there, Uncle Ezra!"

He laughed, trying to ignore the sudden cracking in his spine as he ushered the grown man off of him.

"Take it easy, kid... I'm not as young as I once was..."

"Oh my gosh, _Ticsi!_ Did you hear all those voices?"

"Master Ahsoka was in there too! I wonder if that's the reason she stayed behind?"

"Perhaps?" He smiled, thinking fondly back to all the voices he'd heard connect with Rey down below. "When we get back, I'm sure she'll be more than willing to tell us all about it."

"She spoke right to us," Eryth added. "I feel almost as though the Chiss were acting as an amplifyer so the voices could reach the girl below in the temple."

"Knowing Ahsoka... you may be on to something there." Ezra pondered. "She did know we were all going to be out here in the skies, and she had a deep enough connection to all of us that she might just have been able to make that happen."

 _"Uggh..._ Stop... all this talk is making me feel like a comlink..." Cade shivered. "But if it helped win the battle, I guess I'm glad we were able to do something?"

"Still... I wonder about the girl that was down below. Rey? She is very powerful in the Force, Ticsi, and Ahsoka obviously thinks very highly of her if she pulled a trick like that out of her arsenal all the way back on Schesa. Maybe she should come back with us?"

Cade nodded.

"I feel like Ahsoka will want to meet her in person at the very least?"

Ezra considered that, had been considering it in the back of his mind for hours now.

"We'll introduce ourselves..." he said with a knowing smile, his hand coming up to rub through his hair in a way that read "do not get your hopes up" to his two protégés. "But something tells me her destiny lies somewhere outside of the Chiss. Come on then... let's go meet up with a few friends and catch up before we have to head home."

They walked off as soon as Gunther and Koree waved them down from across the crowd, the small group reconnecting face to face for the first time in years.

Meanwhile, Hera met with old friends and war buddies, even stopping to give Lando her thanks for sending out coordinates so they could jump in the fight. Though the old rascal was still just as big of a flirt as he always was, and Hera had quickly remembered why she always kept him at an arms length. Still, the two managed to have a good laugh about the time he'd "sold" her to Azmorigan, something the woman with him was both shocked and interested to hear. If it was stories Jannah wanted, Hera and Lando had some of the best, and they even rustled a few passersby into reliving old war tales until everyone was reminiscing about the old days together, glad they lived long enough to see the end of the battle this day.

Zeb was able to catch up with a few familiar Rebellion faces, many of whom he hadn't seen since moving to Lira San. He told them stories of his world, of Kallus, their family and life together. All of them had lived such fruitful lives these last few decades, and it was meetings like this that made all of that time seem to fly by in the blink of an eye now that they were looking back on all they'd done.

Jacen managed to catch Poe wandering the base, the two having a good laugh about how much they had both changed since the last time they saw each other as kids. They still had a slew of nicknames at the ready in order to tease the other, but even through all of the years and occupational changes, it was nice to know their friendship could pick up right where it left off. BB-8 and Clank too, having that same friendly rivalry as their partners as they all caught up and reminisced. 

Sabine had found Wedge Antilles of all people, white haired and surrounded by a group of X-Wing pilots. They greeted her with open arms, but it was a solemn reunion. They had lost one of their own. Temmin Wexley, a name Sabine knew quite well as an ace flyer for the Resistance had not made it out of their latest battle, and everyone was doing their best to cope with the mixed feelings they had within them. It was a tough thing to mourn and celebrate all at the same time. Neither of them felt right in retrospect to the other, but being here, surrounded with friends and family as they were, it was easy to remember that people did not suffer alone, and what's more important... none of their loved ones had died in vain. When the Mandalorians found her and started telling their tales, everyone's moods managed to brighten just a bit more as such explosive stories distracted their minds from their most recent battle.

Everywhere you looked, people were celebrating the big win, counting their losses, and also rallying their wins. It took almost an hour just to get through the crowds and talk to everybody, but eventually Ezra had managed to find Rey and the two had broken off towards a quiet hill to have the important discussion Eryth and Cade had brought up. It went about as well as Ezra knew it would, but of course, he knew the outcome from the get go, and was not at all surprised when Rey turned down his offer to join the Ascendancy.

After that the two just stared out at the crowds of friends and allies, a moment of realization finally hitting them now that the adrenaline had worn off. The war was over, and now all that was left could only bring peace.

"I never thought it would end this way." Ezra laughed. "Everything is going to be so different now."

"For the better," Rey nodded. "I used to feel like there was nobody like me out there in the whole galaxy, but now..."

"You're never alone," he said with a smirk.

She smiled.

"The Force is always with us."

He nodded and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"And you're always welcome out in the Ascendancy, if you ever change your mind. Even if it's just for a visit. I know a lot of people who will want to meet you, so don't hesitate to call and I'll make all the proper arrangements to get you safely over to the school. There's a lot of things to dodge in the Unknown Regions... things that fight a bit differently than the First Order."

"Thank you," she said. "Maybe I will some day, but there's still something I have to do... something I need to do for myself first."

He smiled and gave her an understanding nod.

"I had a feeling. Good luck Rey, and may the Force be with you."

"Thank you Master Bridger. I hope to see you again someday soon."

"It's going to be a bright future for all of us," he said. "Let's make the most out of it in our own ways. Right?"

Her smile widened and she nodded firmly.

"Right."

And as she politely excused herself, Ezra waved to her as she continued meeting with familiar faces all along the crowd.

And it was with that that the final chapter closed, the next one just waiting to be written, the long awaited era of peace and prosperity no longer a dream. The celebrations were spread galaxy-wide as the First Order dissolved alongside the Emperor, the last of the Empire's dark remnants quickly fading into obscurity and history as they were meant to do so many years before. As the teams and crews bid their final farewells, the Allied Forces traveled back to their homes spreading far across every planet and sector imaginable, and boy would they have stories to tell their loved ones when they got back.

Ezra stared out at the rolling green fields, the sky blue, and birds singing distantly past the sounds of all the people below. 

"Thanks for always having our back, Kanan." he smiled, and then he too turned back towards the crown as he wandered down the hill to meet up with his friends and family. 

This was just the beginning of their new lives, and whether it be spent surrounded by the people you love, or the people long passed who were watching over you, nobody was ever truly alone, and now everyone else in the galaxy knew it too. Until the next battle, whether that be in his lifetime or far beyond it, the victory of the day had brought balance to the galaxy and to the Force, and for Ezra, that was the best outcome he could have ever hoped to see in his lifetime.

**THE END**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I may need to watch TROS one more time and come back to edit this chapter later down the road, but for now I want to get it out there so I can wrap this short story up and move on to other tales. I hope you were all able to enjoy it in one way or another! Thanks for reading and may the Force be with you! 😊


End file.
